Learning How to Love
by catastrophe86
Summary: Starting from the beginning, this is Claire and Elle's story showing how their relationship progresses over time. Eclaire pairing. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

Learning How to Love - Heroes

Pairing: Claire/Elle  
Disclaimer: I own nothing  
Summary: This is my attempt at rewriting Claire and Elle's story to how I see it. Starting from the beginning, hopefully I'll be able to show how their relationship progresses over time. All I ask is that you be patient with me; it'll probably be several chapters before I get to the good stuff :)  
Warning: There will be some language and, in the later chapters, I'm sure some sexual content.

Enjoy!

* * *

_**Squeak.**_

"Yes, I understand. We'll send some of our guys over-"

_**Squeak.**_

"-right away. Make sure the house is evacuated and question-"

_**Squeak.**_

"-the witnesses… If any of them saw anything out of the ordinary-"

_**Squeak.**_

"-let me know" _Pause_ "… In the mean time-"

_**Squeak.**_

"ELLE!"

Electric blue eyes shot up to meet the scolding gaze of Bob Bishop. He was sitting on the other side of the desk with a death grip on his phone. Elle raised her perfectly arched, blonde eyebrows innocently and froze, ceasing her rocking back and forth in the squeaky desk chair. Bob relaxed his glare and went back to his phone conversation.

"Yeah, I'm still here," Bob continued, "Just do your job and keep me updated." He quickly hung up the phone before pushing a button to call the receptionist.

"Yes, Mr. Bishop?" a voice rang from the speaker.

"Get me Noah and Claude. Tell them to come to my office right away."

"Yes, Mr. Bishop, I'll get right on that," the receptionist replied.

Bob Bishop sat back in his luxurious desk chair and eyed his daughter warily. She gave him a playful smile before resuming her incessant rocking in the squeaky chair. Bob groaned.

"Don't you have something you need to do?" He asked.

"Like what?" she said, examining her fingernails. "I can't leave and the only people here to talk to are the prisoners… _And_ I've already tortured all of them today." She gave him an _'aren't you proud of your daughter'_ smile.

Bob sighed. "Then find something else to do. I need to meet with one of my teams," he said, and, as if on cue, there was a light knock on the door. Bob stood up and walked around the desk. "Come in!" he called, pushing his daughter towards the door before softly adding, "Please try to behave yourself."

She groaned, "_Ugh_, fine fine." She quickly brushed past both Noah and Claude on her way out, ignoring their questioning glances. Shutting the door behind her, she quickly made her rounds again; checking up on all the prisoners and making sure they were nice and _comfortable_ in their confined cells.

She blew out an exasperated breath as she walked slowly down the halls, idly reaching her hand out to ignite blue sparks across the concrete wall with her fingertips. _Man, I hate this place, _she thought. She could barely wait to become a full agent so that she could get out of the hell hole and do some real work. But she was only sixteen... she still had a few more years to go before she could earn _that_ title. It drove her insane. She had been trapped there for the past seven years and knew next to nothing about the outside world.

She knew her name and she knew of her ability… She also knew she was responsible for several "horrendous misdeeds" that no one spoke of (which is what landed her here in the first place), but those events she couldn't remember. She could barely remember _anything_ about her life before this. Her childhood was a series of missing puzzle pieces… making it impossible for her to piece together what memories she _did _have left. Her daddy told her that she had been traumatized on many occasions, and that was why she couldn't remember… Her mind blocked out those memories. However bad they might have been though, she would rather have them back. She would rather have _some_ memory of what life was like outside the compound than nothing at all. Perhaps then she would understand everything better. _Like why that guy is giving me the stink eye_, she thought, sending a glare in his direction.

The prisoners all looked at her as though she were a freak. It didn't bother her most of the time; just made her torturing them all the more fun. But there were days it got to her. She didn't understand why people looked at her weirdly, as if she had two heads. They wouldn't tell her either… as if simply _asking_ them what she had done to cause them to look at her in such an uncomfortable way only added to her "freakiness". _As if I'm supposed to _know_ what I've done without someone telling me_, she scoffed, _whatever, they're just scared of my power… speaking of which…_ She realized that the prisoner was still openly staring at her. She quickly threw a ball of electricity at the glass barrier which made the guy jump back and trip over his own cot. She chuckled darkly. _Yeah, that's right._

Somewhere along the line she found a rubber band and began to idly stretch it and wrap it around her fingers while she lost herself in her thoughts. _Perhaps daddy will let me visit outside the compound someday_, she thought, _not_ _on an official mission, but if he's there with me surely he'll consider it_. She smiled softly to herself. _Yeah_, she thought. She made a mental note to remember and ask him about it later.

She kept twirling the rubber band between her fingers as she made her way down one of the front hallways; a part of the façade that was the "paper factory". She didn't usually travel this far up to the front of the factory, but she was bored. She wandered around aimlessly while idly popping her finger with the rubber band. It kept her entertained for a while before the mail guy approached her.

"H-Hi Elle," the teenage boy stuttered.

Elle turned to look at him. "Oh hi, Bobby." They didn't run into each other too often, but it was often enough for Bobby to give her his name at least two or three times until she finally remembered it. She still tried to avoid him whenever she could though… He was a little odd. He always seemed sweaty and fidgety when Elle was around.

"I-I have a package for your dad," he said, offering her a smile, "Is he in his office?"

Elle nodded, absently looking over Bobby's shoulder to see a little curly headed monster rounding the corner into a room, "Yeah, he was earlier… He should still be in there." She returned her gaze to his eyes only to find that they were no longer on hers. His eyes were… travelling up and down her body. She quirked an eyebrow and looked down. _What_, she thought, _is there something wrong with my outfit?_ She didn't buy her own clothes, obviously. She highly doubted daddy bought her clothes either. If she had to guess, all of her clothes were leftovers… either from previous agents or prisoners. Today she sported some baggy, army green cargo pants and a black tank top. Oh, and her favorite converse sneakers. The clothes barely fit her. In fact, none of her clothes did. She was very slender, and, not to mention, very short. It was hard for her to find any clothes that even _remotely_ fit her out of her limited wardrobe.

She looked back up to Bobby's face, noticing the faint blush that had taken up residence in his cheeks. _Maybe he noticed I'm not wearing a bra_, she wondered. _Psh, it's not like I need one anyway,_ she thought, remembering her complete lack of curves also played a big part in her not fitting into her clothes. _Whatever_. Considering the conversation finished, she brushed past Bobby and started walking towards the room where she saw the little monster disappear. _Now, where did she go?_

"Oh okay," she heard Bobby say over her shoulder as he turned to walk with her, "I'll just go check and see then." Elle nodded again, though she couldn't remember what they had been talking about, and turned to look at him as she leaned against the open doorway. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the little monster's wild, curly blonde hair sticking out from her head as she leant over the table and scratched away at the notebook sitting in front of her.

Bobby shifted nervously from foot to foot as he looked down, blushing again, "So Elle, I was w-wondering, if you're not t-too busy that is, m-maybe you would like to…" The rest of what he said was lost on Elle as she strategically pulled the rubber band over her finger and stretched it out. Making sure she was aimed right for her target, she released the band, all the while keeping her eyes on Bobby.

She knew her mission was successful when a loud, high pitched, "OW!" resonated through the room. Elle looked over to see that she'd hit her target dead on as the little monster turned to glare at her, her little hand covering her cheek. Elle doubled over, cackling hysterically.

"Um… Elle?" Bobby prodded after a few moments.

Elle took in large gulps of air as she tried to contain her laughter. _Shit, that was funny!_ She straightened back up to look at him, still shaking softly. He was looking at her expectantly. "I-I'm sorry, Bobby," she paused as another fit of laughter took over. She took another deep breath, and tried to speak steadily even though there was still amusement in her voice, "What were you saying?"

He hung his head with something that looked like disappointment crossing his features. "Never mind," he muttered, "I'll see you later." He shuffled off quickly leaving Elle to stare at his back in confusion. She didn't have much time to ponder his actions though as a small foot kicked her square in the shin.

"Ouch!" she doubled over, this time to grab her leg. She glanced over the see the little monster standing beside her. "You little twerp!" she shouted.

"_You_ started it!" the high pitched voice squealed.

"Did _not_," Elle retorted, quickly straightening her posture so that she could tower over the small child before placing her hands indignantly on her hips.

"Oh, so this just _happened_ to fall from the sky and smack me in the face?" she yelled, holding up the rubber band as proof.

_Damn, the little monster is observant_, Elle noted. "_No_," she started, quickly making up some bullshit explanation, "Maybe you had it holding your hair up, _but_, let's face it…" She reached down and patted the wild mess of hair atop the younger girl's head, "_Nothing _could contain that mess."

The younger girl growled and attempted to charge at Elle, but Elle simply kept a hold of the younger girl's hair, holding her at arm's length so that her attack was futile. Elle laughed again at the little monster's struggle in her grasp.

This was Claire Bennet, of course, daughter of the infamous Noah Bennet; the leading agent here at the company and her dad's right hand man. Elle continued to snicker as the girl continued to struggle; this bickering back and forth had become quite the daily routine for them for some time now. _She's pretty spunky for a little demon_, she thought. As entertaining as the little monster was, though, Elle found herself quickly becoming bored. Tossing the girl to the side, she briskly strode over to the table to see what the girl had been writing earlier. Elle took in the little math book and the semi-finished word problem. _What the…_ she thought as she flipped through the pages. "Isn't this homework a little advanced for a five year old?"

Claire quickly reached her side and proceeded to crawl atop the stool so that she could meet Elle's eyes. "I'm _eight_," she spat vehemently up at the taller blonde.

Elle's eyes widened in shock as she took in the smaller girl's appearance. _Surely not_, she thought, _the girl's a midget!_ She studied her for a long moment before narrowing her eyes. "You're lying," Elle replied.

Claire was livid. She stamped her foot in a dramatic fashion and shouted back, "I am _not!_ I'm _eight!_ You can ask my father!"

Elle rolled her eyes, "Whatever." She looked at the little monster again, "You must be the smallest eight year old in history… Was your mom a dwarf or something?"

Claire roared and launched herself off the stool, but she never made her target as a larger pair of arms caught her in midair. Elle immediately choked down the laugh that almost erupted from her throat as she came face to face with Noah Bennet himself. She quickly regained her composure and smiled at him innocently, "Hi, Mr. Bennet."

Claire huffed and huffed as she struggled in his arms, still trying to attack the girl in front of her. Noah didn't appear to be amused. "Elle," he noted her existence before moving to set Claire back on the stool, giving Elle his back. "Get your stuff together. I have some things to take care of, but I'll need to drop you off at home first," he told his daughter.

Claire pointed an accusing finger at Elle, "But-but-" Noah lifted a hand up to silence her, "No buts. We're leaving now." Claire groaned and got down, quickly gathering up her books and shoving them into her backpack. Noah took the pack and motioned for her to head on out to the car.

Elle chuckled softly as the little monster glared at her before storming out. _Ah, what a good day_, Elle mused to herself but quickly lost her smile when she realized it was just her and Noah left. He looked at her sternly before taking a few deliberate steps forward. He gave her a small, tight smile before he began to speak, "I'd hate to have to bring this up with your father, Elle." His tone was purposefully light, but she could tell he meant every word. Elle stared up at him wide eyed and gulped softly. He stared at her for a moment longer before releasing his glare. "See that it doesn't happen again," he said as he brushed past her and headed out the door as well.

Elle released the breath she had been holding.

_Whew, that was a close one..._

[later on that afternoon]

Elle stood outside her father's office, silently repeating what she planned to say over again in her head. Taking a deep breath, she reached out and knocked on the door softly. She waited until she heard her daddy's muffled, "Come in," before slowly opening the door and making her way over to his desk.

He was busy filling out paperwork, of course. He didn't even bother to look up at her. Elle waited patiently though, chewing her lip as Bob finished signing some documents. When he still didn't look up at her, she slowly began to tap her fingernails on the desk in a steady rhythm. She kept that up for several moments until he finally sighed and gave up. Dropping the document back onto the desk, he sat up and met his daughter's gaze. "Yes, Elle?"

She smiled brightly at him. "Hi Daddy," was all she said.

He raised his eyebrows expectantly, but when he realized he wasn't going to get any more out of her without encouragement, he responded. "Hi Elle," he said with the sweetest tone he could muster.

Elle beamed at him before moving to sit down across from him. "So Daddy, I was wondering... I know your thoughts about me leaving the compound, and I know that's why I haven't been on any missions yet, but I'm going _crazy_ in here, Daddy!" she quickly blurted out, giving him her biggest puppy dog eyes. "So, I thought maybe if _you_ were to take me out somewhere, not on a mission or anything like that but maybe out to a movie or something... would it would be okay for me to get out for a night?" She watched him pleadingly.

Bob stayed quiet for a moment as he thought it over. "I don't know, Elle..."

"Please, Daddy, _please!_" she spouted, "I'll be on my best behavior _ever_, I _promise!_"

Bob watched her for a moment longer as she practically foamed at the mouth. He sighed softly, "I suppose we could work something out."

"YES!" Elle exclaimed, literally jumping out of her seat and doing a fist pump. She ran around the desk quickly to give her daddy a smothering hug. "You won't regret it, Daddy, I promise!"

Bob chuckled softly before pushing her back and holding her at arm's length. "Hold on a second, before you get carried away..." He paused to make sure he had her full attention. "I only agreed to this because we actually have the perfect opportunity for you and I to do something this weekend." He released her and gave her a small smile.

She stood up again and watched him as she tucked her hair behind her ear. "This weekend?" she questioned, "What's this weekend?"

He gave her a broader smile. "It's Noah's birthday," he said before turning back to the papers on his desk, "And he invited the whole office over for a cookout." He didn't explain any further and paid no mind to Elle as she continued to stand there absently.

Finally snapping out of it, she slowly shuffled back to her chair and sank down into it before her brain managed to form a response. "We're going to Noah Bennet's house?" she asked with barely masked distaste.

Bob looked up at her sharply, "You were the one that said you wanted to get out of the compound for a night."

"Yeah, but..." she started, "It's _Noah Bennet_... We see him everyday."

Her father returned his attention to his desk. "You either want to go out or you don't, Elle. It's up to you." His tone made it clear his decision was final.

Elle sighed and stood up. "Alright," she relented, "I suppose it's better than nothing."

Bob nodded, "Good girl."

Elle rolled her eyes and turned to leave his office again. _Greeeeat_, she thought. _I ask for a night out and what do I get? A birthday party with a killer and the spawn of Satan herself. _She sighed again.

_What did I do to deserve this?_

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**A/N: That's it for the first chapter. Sorry it isn't much.**

I normally don't ask for reviews considering I'm not very good at leaving reviews myself :S. But just for this first chapter, I'd really like to hear what y'all think. I kind of struggled to get this chapter out, and I'm not really sure where I want to take this story yet or _if_ I'll even continue it. So let me know what you guys think. If you want to see more of this story and what not.

If I do keep it going, I'll only do one more chapter with them at this age. Then I'll jump about eight years into the future and show how they reconnect when they're older.

Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

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Elle stared at the house warily before looking around. This wasn't just an office party; he had apparently invited the whole _friggin'_ neighborhood. There were cars lined up on both sides of the street and some people were walking over straight out of their front doors.

She had come to terms with the fact that they were going to attend Noah Bennet's birthday party a few days ago, but now that she stood there… seeing all those people… She suddenly grew nervous. The Bennet's perfect ass family she could handle. Throw in some guys from the office? Sure, no big deal. But _all_ these _strangers?_ All these new people who had _no idea_ what she was capable of. All the adults would try to talk to her while all their sons breathed on her and sweated profusely.

She shuddered.

"Elle?" Bob Bishop called once he strode around the car to her side. He glanced down at her arms folded tightly over her chest before raising his eyebrows questioningly. "You going to be okay?"

Elle nodded shortly, not fully paying attention. And what if there are girls there her age? Elle didn't think she'd actually conversed with any teenage girls before… They'd probably look at her the wrong way and she'd zap them. A small, maniacal smile spread across her lips. _Yeah, that's what I'll do._

As if reading her thoughts, Bob reached out and placed a firm grip on both her shoulders, forcing her to meet his gaze. "Elle," he said sternly, "I'm expecting you to be on your very best behavior just like you promised me, remember?"

Elle sighed and nodded again.

"Good girl," Bob said straightening up again. "You don't want to disappoint me now, do you?"

Elle simply stared up at him for a moment before gently shaking her head.

"Alright," he said, giving her an encouraging smile, "Let's go inside."

She let out another exasperated breath before accepting her fate and following her daddy inside. At least he had actually bought her some new clothes for the occasion… or rather sent his receptionist out to get the clothes. She finally got some jeans that fit her, thank goodness, even though she still had to wear a belt to keep them up. And she had on a nice, form fitting, black shirt where the sleeves ended at her elbows. She was still wearing her converse sneakers, yeah, but they were her favorite.

She stepped over the threshold and felt her eyes widen at everything going on in the room. First, she noticed it was actually a very nice house with a high ceiling and crown moldings. At some point she had envisioned the Bennets living in a old shack, forcing little Claire Bear to bath outside in a metal tub like the dog that she is. But, of course, she knew that wouldn't be accurate. The second thing she noticed were all the people milling about; some in line to get food while the others chatted rather loudly. _Ugh, I'm going to have a headache before this night is over._ She subconsciously drifted closer to her daddy as if to ward off everyone from any misguided attempts at talking to her. _Stupid people_, she thought.

"Bob! Hey!" some guy called as he bounded over to where they stood.

"Hey Phil, it's good to see you again," Bob gestured to his daughter who was standing rigidly next to him, "This is my daughter Elle, I don't believe you two have met before."

The Phil guy smiled at her in a creepy way and stretched out his hand. She reluctantly took it. "It's nice to meet you, Elle."

"Yeah, you too," she quickly said without a smile before retracting her hand. Bob gave her a disapproving look, but she shrugged it off and continued to look around while they continued their conversation.

She recognized a few of the guys from the office; other agents and guys who just worked in the building. She even thought she spotted Bobby at some point, but she didn't make her way over to him. The rest of the people there were complete strangers however. She turned when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Elle, Phil and I need to go discuss some things," her dad told her, "Will you be alright out here by yourself?"

Elle nodded and offered him a brave smile. He smiled approvingly then walked with Phil into what Elle guessed was Noah's office. She sighed and began to push her way through the crowd. She had no interest in talking to anyone, but she could always eat. She made her way over to the food table and took in all the deliciously "bad for you" foods sitting in front of her. _Mm mm mmmm_, she thought, not noticing the person that had walked up to her side.

"Hey Elle," a young male voice sounded to her left. She looked over to see a grinning Bobby standing there.

"Oh hey Bobby," she said, turning back to the food. He didn't look as sweaty as he usually did which was a relief. She grabbed a plate and moved to the end of the line, leaving him to stand there alone. He looked oddly at her for a moment before following suit.

"I didn't expect to see you here," he stated as they picked their way across the table.

"Yeah well… I don't get out much," she muttered as she mimicked the people in front of her; grabbing the set of tongs to reach her hot dog instead of using her fingers and using the spoon to pour some dip onto her plate rather than eating it right out of the bowl. Some of these foods she didn't recognize so she just grabbed a little of everything.

Bobby nodded absently. He swallowed gently before continuing, "Well, do you think you could get out tomorrow night?" he asked hopefully.

"I doubt it," Elle said blatantly, not understanding the reason for such an odd question, "I had to beg and plead just to come _here_ of all places."

Bobby, disheartened, looked down and nodded his head in understanding. Seeing this, Elle scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion before turning away. _Man, he's weird_. She turned towards the drinks to see a group of guys standing there… all with the same ridiculous smile that Bobby usually wore. She froze and stared, waiting to see if they were going to mess with her. But they didn't. They just continued to stand there with goofy grins on their faces. _Um… ooookay,_ she thought. She quickly grabbed a drink and dashed off when a couple of them tried to approach her. _Nuh uh, no conversing with the sociopath, fellas. _

She found a secluded corner of the room, far away from the crowds, so that she could eat her meal. She quickly shoveled the hot dog down and proceeded to pick away at her chips. It was hard though. Even though she managed to chase the guys away, random adults kept approaching her, trying to figure out who she is. All she would give them was, "Elle Bishop", "Daughter of Bob Bishop", and sometimes "My daddy and Noah Bennet work together". Aside from that, she had no other information for them. She managed to scare most of them off within the first few seconds. That was her specialty… making people uncomfortable.

When it was clear she wasn't going to be able to eat in peace, she made her way upstairs where no one seemed to be going. _This area is probably off limits, but… eh, since when do I care?_

She made her way down the quiet hallway, carefully peeking into rooms until she found one that made her stop and giggle. _Oh, this must be Claire Bear's room_, she thought as she walked in and looked around. It was like… Barbie had come to life, travelled all the way to Odessa, TX, and threw up in here. _Oh dear goodness!_ The entire room was pink: pink walls, pink carpets, pink comforter, pink canopy. It was like Claire was the Barbie princess herself! She quickly choked down the rest of her food while laughing before tossing the plate away. _Oh wow, I will never forget this_, she thought as she made her way around the room, looking at the photographs on her nightstand. They were all of her family, of course. Elle picked up one photo in particular that was truly sappy. The parents were sitting indian style in front of a tree while each of them held one of their children; Noah held Claire, of course, while Sandra held the ball of fat that must be called Lyle. She had never met him before, but she was sure he was probably just as much of a pain.

"_What_… are you _doing_ in here?"

_Oh shit._

It was Claire. _Of course, who else? _Elle coughed lightly, pondering over her response while never taking her eyes off the photograph. She decided, _eh, what the hell? _"I was snoopin' around your room, Barbie"

The little girl huffed and took up her defensive stance; stamping her foot while crossing her arms over her chest and jutting out her bottom lip in an angry pout. Elle snorted at the sight. "Oh calm down, Claire Bear. I'm not going to wreck your perfect little room," she said while sitting the photograph back down. She walked over to the bed that was clearly made for a princess as Claire huffed again and stormed over to the dresser. _Apparently I didn't put the photo back in the right place_, she thought as she watched the young girl straighten it out. Elle rolled her eyes.

While Claire inspected the rest of her room to see if anything else was out of place, Elle looked down to see what she guessed was Claire's favorite teddy bear; it was the only one sitting on the bed. And it, too, was pink. Elle let out another snort but lost her smile when she really inspected the bear. Something about it seemed so familiar. Elle narrowed her eyes and picked it up, turning it over to inspect every detail. It wasn't just pink, but it also had little tuffs of purple mixed in its' fur. He also had a purple belly with matching purple eyes. _I know this bear_, she thought. Absently she hugged the bear to her chest and sank down on the bed.

Elle's eyes glazed over as a fuzzy scene played before her eyes.

"_No, Daddy, no! Please don't!"_

_Bob Bishop looked down at her with the tattered pink and purple teddy bear in his hand. "Elle, you're thirteen years old. It's time for you to grow up and be responsible. You don't need to sleep with a teddy bear anymore, you're a big girl."_

"_But Daddy, please!" she begged pleadingly._

_But instead of responding, Bob Bishop simply tossed the bear into the dumpster. Quickly grabbing his daughter, he dragged her back into the compound kicking and screaming, ignoring her pleas. Elle cried. For the rest of the day she cried. When it was time for her to go to bed that night, she missed her companion so much she lit up the building with her power. She heard people yelling, screaming at her to stop, but she didn't. She kept pulsing electricity out of her body until she passed out._

"Elle?"

Elle continued to stare into space, ignoring the little voice trying to break into her thoughts.

"_Elle!"_

She snapped back to reality as a little hand slapped her leg. She looked down at the owner of the hand and was surprised to see Claire Bennet standing there. Elle frowned at the girl, "What do you want, twerp?"

Claire's look of confusion was quickly replaced with irritation. "What are you doing with my teddy?"

Elle's eyebrows shot up. She was about to ask the girl what in the hell she was smoking when she looked down and saw the little pink and purple teddy bear she was hugging to her chest. "Oh…" she said, releasing her grip on him. "Here you go," she held the teddy out to the girl.

Claire took it cautiously, giving her an odd look. They stared at each other for several moments. Elle really wasn't sure why. She grew accustomed to people staring at her, but Claire seemed to be trying to read her… As if she were looking into Elle's eyes in hopes of finding answers. _Wow, this kid is really too serious for an eight year old_, she thought.

"_What?"_ Elle snapped.

Claire blinked and shook her head, choosing not to say anything.

Elle rolled her eyes and started to get up.

"Wait," Claire interrupted, "Are you sure you're feeling okay, Elle?" She finally asked with a look that almost seemed concerned.

Elle scoffed at this. "Of course I'm okay, _brat_, now get out of my way." Elle went to put her hand on Claire's shoulder to push her away but inadvertently ended up shocking her instead.

"OW!" Claire yelped, dropping her teddy bear so she could grab her shoulder.

Elle's eyes widened in horror. _Oh no._ She quickly knelt down next to the girl, "Oh Claire, I'm so sorry." She quickly apologized, "Are you okay?"

"I don't know," Claire whimpered, trying to get a look at her shoulder.

"Here, let me see," Elle quickly grabbed a hold of her arm and inspected her shoulder for any damages. She didn't know what brought on this sudden onslaught of concern for the younger girl. Surely she didn't care if she hurt her or not. _Oh no_, she shook off the thought, _I don't care about that, but if daddy finds out, he'll kill me! _She sighed and continued her inspection until she found the small patched of charred skin where she'd zapped her. "Oh Claire…" she said sorrowfully.

She was about to show the girl in the mirror where she was burned, but something caught Elle's eye. She quickly returned her gaze back to the girl's wound and watched, open mouthed, as the skin slowly began to repair itself. "What the…" she started, but her voice faded as she continued to look on. In a matter of seconds the wound was completely gone, leaving no trace that it had ever been there.

"What?" Claire asked alarmed, "What is it?" She tried to turn her head to see what Elle was looking at.

_Did that just… No, surely not_. Elle looked up at Claire. The girl stared back at her wide eyed. _Claire isn't an evolve_, Elle thought, quickly shaking the notion from her head. She must have just been seeing things. Yeah, she shocked the girl, but not enough to leave a mark… right? Elle let out a much needed breath. _Right_, she thought to herself, _my eyes were just playing tricks on me_.

"It's nothing, Claire Bear," Elle quickly stood herself back up and dusted off her clothes, "You were crying over nothing."

Claire narrowed her eyes at Elle but before she could respond, Noah Bennet bounded into the room. He looked worried as he took in Claire's appearance, but stopped short when he noticed Elle standing not a foot away from her. _Uh oh_, she thought.

Noah didn't look happy, but, before he gave Elle the third degree, he had more important matters to tend to first. He quickly walked over and knelt in front of Claire, inspecting her. "Is everything alright, Claire Bear? I thought I heard you scream earlier," he asked full of concern. Elle rolled her eyes.

Claire looked back and forth between Elle and her father. Elle sighed, _heeeere we go_. The little monster was about to rat her out.

Claire swallowed softly and returned her gaze to her father. Much to Elle's surprise, she offered up a brave smile, "I'm fine, Dad. Elle and I were just talking."

Elle raised her eyebrows. _Huh._

Noah looked uncertainly between the two, but he decided to relent, returning his daughter's smile. "If you're sure…" he said, sparing another glance to Elle, which she returned with her most charming smile. He didn't look fooled.

Claire simply nodded her head, though. He sighed, "Alright." He stood up then and turned to the taller blonde, "Elle, your father's been looking for you. I think he's ready to go."

"Oh," Elle said, only slightly disappointed. "Okay then," she gave them both a smile. "Bye Noah," she said, striding over to the door before turning back one last time. "Bye munchkin," she said with a wink before heading back down the stairs.

[back at the compound some time later]

A week went by before she heard from either one of the Bennets again. It didn't bother her too much, she just kept herself occupied with the prisoners. She knew her daddy was keeping Noah busy and that was why he hadn't brought Claire by. But she bided her time; using up all her free time to think of new ways to torture the girl.

It was Friday and she had herself locked away in her own room. She'd already tortured all the fun prisoners twice that day and already grew bored of their ridiculous pleas for mercy. She was doodling now, or attempting to really. She wasn't really that much of an artist, but maybe if she practiced a little bit every day she'd get better at it. Right now she was putting the finishing touches on Noah Bennet's hair. Granted, Noah didn't have spiky hair… nor did he have horns and a scythe, but she was improvising. A soft knock on the door interrupted her thought process though.

"Come in," she said without taking her eyes off her sketch.

"You busy?" a voice asked her. She looked up to see the devil himself standing in her doorway. And by "devil" she meant Noah Bennet.

"Oh umm…" she hurriedly wadded up the paper she had been drawing on, "No no, come in." She offered him a small smile and stood up to deposit the paper in the trash can.

Noah took a few steps into the room and halted, taking in her bland decorations. In all honesty, Elle's room barely differed from those of the prisoners. She had the same white walls and the same, ordinary cot. There were no colors at all. The only difference in her room was that the door could be locked from the inside rather than the outside.

They both stood their awkwardly for a moment before Noah finally decided to speak. "So umm…" he started.

Elle raised her eyebrows expectantly.

He cleared his throat and continued. "Sandra and I had a discussion a few nights ago," he looked up to make sure she was paying attention before walking slowly around the room. "Neither of us really enjoy Claire having to spend time here, so we decided that…" he stopped and turned to meet her gaze again before continuing. "We decided that it would be best for her to just go home after school rather than her coming here with me." He held her gaze for a moment longer to make sure she understood what he was saying.

Of course she got it. He was telling her that she wouldn't be seeing Claire anymore. She frowned slightly at the unexpected surge of disappointment that settled in her stomach, but refused to let it show in her expression. "Oh," was all she said, "Okay."

Noah took in a deep breath then and let it out, as if he were deliberating something. He watched Elle for a long moment before looking away, apparently making up his mind. "Yeah well…" he swallowed gently, "She's here." He met her gaze again, "And…" he cleared his throat before taking a few steps towards the teenager. He studied her face again before sighing, "And… for reasons I'm sure I'll _never_ understand…" He paused, as if he really hated what he had to say next, "… she wanted to say goodbye to you."

Elle felt her eyebrows scrunch together in confusion; not only at his words but at the strange emotions they stirred in her as well. It was like her heart leapt and her stomach dropped at the exact same moment. She didn't understand why the little monster wanted to see her after all Elle had done to her, but she couldn't help but feel elated as well. No one had ever done something so nice for her before. The little twerp had actually come up here one last time to tell her bye.

Elle, realizing she still hadn't given a response, nodded quickly. "Yeah, sure… whatever," she said nonchalantly before moving back over to her desk and sitting down.

Noah sighed and exited the room again. Elle heard some quiet whispers before the monster finally made her way into the room. Elle gave her a small, tight smile as she made her way over, but quickly lost it when she noted the younger girl's expression; Claire was watching her wearily. _What did I do?_ She thought, but didn't say anything as the midget continued to examine her. Elle sat rigidly under the girl's scrutinizing gaze but kept quiet until the girl finally sighed. The older blonde watched on with keen interest as the brat pulled her backpack off her shoulder and sat it down in the free chair. Quickly unzipping the pack, she rummaged around in it for a moment looking for something. Elle glanced back at the door to shoot Noah a questioning look, but he had decided to stay out in the hallway. Turning her attention back to Claire, the smaller girl seemed to have found what she was looking for.

Elle sat there quietly as Claire slowly pulled out her pink and purple teddy bear.

Elle swallowed gently.

Claire turned her stern eyes back to the older blonde and watched her for a long moment before finally placing the teddy in Elle's lap. Elle looked at it questioningly, but Claire didn't give her any explanation. After a long silence, Elle finally picked up the bear and held it in front of her. "Are you… giving this to me?" she asked timidly.

Claire's lips tightened ever so slightly but she nodded in affirmation.

Elle raised her eyebrows curiously, but, without wasting a moment, hugged the teddy bear to her chest. "Thank you," she said sincerely.

Claire nodded, "You're welcome." She started to zip up her backpack.

"Why are you giving this to me?" Elle had to ask. Claire sighed.

"I dunno," Claire responded, "Since I won't be here maybe you can take your anger out on it instead of me?" she suggested with a small, teasing smile. Elle laughed.

"Right right," Elle said.

Claire stood there for another moment before turning to head out the door again.

"Wait," Elle called, quickly standing up.

Claire stopped and slowly turned to look at her again.

Elle froze, not really sure what she had been wanting to say, so instead she offered a small, awkward wave.

Claire snickered, "I'll miss you, too, Elle." With that, she turned and walked out, leaving Elle to her thoughts.

* * *

**A/N: I didn't get too much feedback from the last chapter though it did get a lot of hits. I'm guessing no one really knows where I'm going with this yet. Hell, I don't even know. But, rest assured, this is the last chapter with them at this age. Next chapter will start off eight years in the future; Claire is in high school and Elle is given her first assignment. Let me know what you guys think.**

Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

**_****Riana Kaiba, HarukaFairbanks, WGail: Thank you guys so much for your support :). Honestly, if I didn't have your reviews for encouragement I probably would've dropped it after the first chapter. So, thank you again! :)****_**

Chapter 3**  


* * *

  
EPOV**

Eight years had passed since that fateful day, and Noah kept true to his word; Claire never came back to the compound after that. She tried not to care, but Elle kind of missed the little monster. Without her there, Elle was only left with the prisoners to torture. She got over it though, and moved on with her life as she always did. She moped around for a few months, yes, but surely after that she got her act together and focused all her extra energy onto her agent training.

Elle had just turned 24, and she had been an agent for a few years now. She always worked as a part of a team, though; her daddy didn't trust her enough yet for any solo missions. She never had one single partner either. Bob thought it would be best to float her around, including her in any team that could use her ability. She'd even been paired off with Noah a couple of times. Though Claire disappeared from the facility, Noah did not. There were times she wanted to ask Noah about the young girl, but always bit her tongue. It didn't matter anymore anyway. Noah did his best to keep his daughter away from this life, and so a normal life is what she got. And since she had a "normal" life… that meant there was no place for Elle in it. She was, after all, the exact opposite of normal.

The sound of Elle's heels could be heard down the hallway; she was sure the receptionist knew she was coming. Her wardrobe had drastically changed since she became an agent. All of her clothes now consisted of business suits; blazers, professional business tops, black pants, and even a few skirts. She was very proud to be an agent. When she rounded the corner, she saw the receptionist looking up at her uneasily.

"Morning Trish," Elle said brightly.

Trish simply nodded a hello to her. Elle bit back a giggle. Trish had been scared of her ever since she first started working there; she wasn't entirely sure why. It wasn't like Elle came by here to torture _her_ every day. Elle chuckled at the thought. Quickly composing herself, she got back down to business, "Is Daddy in? He asked me to come see him first thing this morning."

Trish nodded again, "Yes, Ms. Bishop. He's waiting for you."

Elle snorted at the name and let herself in to Bob Bishop's office. He was talking on the phone, but motioned for her to come have a seat. Elle wandered up to one of the two chairs in front of his desk and made herself comfortable while her daddy finished his phone conversation.

"I don't know yet," he said in a somewhat hushed tone, "No, I'm going to put someone on it today, you have my word."

Elle scrunched her eyebrows together lightly and took this time to look around, as if she _hadn't _seen his office every day for the past sixteen years, and pretended like she wasn't eavesdropping. She swallowed gently, keeping her eyes elsewhere as she kept an ear open.

"If he does know, he hasn't said anything to us about it," Bob listened for a moment before scoffing, "It'll be best to just look into it for ourselves, which is why I suggested we send in one of our agents for this. They can get in and get out without anyone noticing." Bob was silent again as the person on the other end started talking. Elle's eyes slowly drifted back towards him. "I wasn't going to send in just _anyone_," he said looking up to catch Elle staring right at him. Elle gulped. "I have the perfect man for the job," he finished with a smile. "I'll let you know what we find out," he said before hanging up.

He cleared his throat then and turned to face Elle, folding his hands on his desk in a professional manner. "Elle, I'm sure you're wondering why I called you in here today," he said and waited for Elle to nod before continuing, "Well, I thought long and hard about it, and I think you're ready." At Elle's confused look, he smiled and picked up a file on his desk before plopping it in front of her, "Your first solo assignment."

Elle gasped and picked up the folder before meeting her daddy's eyes. "Really?" she said, brimming with excitement. _Oh, the possibilities_, she thought. She finally had a chance to prove to him once and for all how serious she was about this job. She held her breath and opened the folder only to feel her excitement deflate when she was met with a picture of a teenage girl.

Elle looked up at her dad questioningly before returning her eyes to the picture. The girl had a round face with a striking smile and sparkling green eyes. She was tan and athletic with rich, honey blonde hair that fell down her back. And, to put the icing on the cake, she was clad in a red and white cheerleading uniform. _Your typical teenager_, she thought. But looking past the surface, this typical teenager was anything but… she even held a significant place in Elle's life at one point in time. Elle stared at the photo with wide eyes. Yes, she was all grown up now, but there was no mistaking that face.

"You remember Claire, don't you, Elle?" Bob asked her from across the desk. She had almost forgotten he was there.

Elle nodded absently, feeling a small pit of dread settling in her stomach while she closed the folder again. _What did he want with Claire?_ She wondered. She looked up to Bob for an explanation, to which he leaned forward on his desk again, showing her how serious this mission was.

"Elle, I need you to watch Claire," she quirked an eyebrow at him, and he shook his head, "Not in a protective way." She waited for him to continue, "Elle, we believe that Claire may have an ability… Like you, we believe she's special." She opened her mouth to ask a question, but he held up his hand silencing her, "We can't ask Noah about it, because we believe he's protecting her. If she does have an ability, Elle, he knows about it… and he's refusing to tell us." Elle closed her mouth again. He nodded before continuing, "That's why this mission is of the utmost importance, Elle. You won't only be discovering another special for us, but you may also be identifying a possible traitor in our midst." Elle gulped. "He mustn't know what you're doing. Follow Claire, but at a safe distance," he told her, and Elle nodded, "Neither of them can know what you're up to." He paused before adding, "If you see _anything_ out of the ordinary, Elle, you report back to me immediately."

Elle swallowed again before standing up and nodding to the man behind the desk, "I won't let you down, Daddy." With that, she turned and left.

[the next morning]

Elle sat in the overheated company car, parked in front of the school known as Union Wells. She had gotten there early to get a good view of the front of the building. Checking her rearview mirror, she watched the kids floating in between cars and heading up towards the building. She kept a wary eye out for the blonde cheerleader, but her thoughts were racing.

_Claire… an evolve? What's her power? … Annoying people?_

She remembered the question had come up once before when they were younger. Elle remembered the night well. She had accidentally shocked the little monster and then watched as the wound seemed to disappear into thin air. She never told her daddy about the incident though because she thought her eyes were just playing tricks on her. Elle sighed. What if Claire was one of them? Her thoughts then drifted to Noah Bennet. If she was a special, Noah would have had to have known about it… and he's been protecting her this whole time.

Something sparked in Elle that caused her to tighten her grip on the steering wheel. Noah must have known what she was capable of, and so he kept Claire hidden from the company all these years. He kept her hidden so that the girl could have a "normal" life. And a _normal_ life is what she _did_ have. Elle's jaw clenched. _Fuck that._ If she _was_ a special, then she was just about as "normal" as Elle was… Only _she_ didn't grow up locked away in some compound, _no_. Claire had a nice, _normal_ family, a perfectly _normal _school to attend, surrounded by all her delightfully _normal_ friends. Elle could feel the sparks starting to build in her hands as her temper flared. How did she manage to escape living the life she had? Granted, she used to spend a lot of time in the compound, but then Noah took her away. He took her away because he didn't like her to be associated with the place… with her… Almost as if she was too good for them.

The blue electricity started to spark from her hand onto the steering wheel when it abruptly stopped. Elle's expression softened and she gently released her grip as the blonde cheerleader came into view.

Claire Bennet stood at the bottom of the steps leading up to the school. She was dressed in her uniform, of course, and was surrounded by a bunch of other girls dressed in the same fashion. At that moment, she threw her head back and laughed at something one of her teammates said.

Elle blinked rapidly as she watched the girl. _Wow, she's... kinda beautiful_. She quickly shook the ridiculous thought out of her head, but even then couldn't manage to tear her eyes away.

As much as Elle wanted to hate the girl for the life she never knew, she couldn't… not in that moment. Claire's face completely lit up, and the _sun_ even seemed to pale in comparison to her smile. Though Elle had recognized her right off the bat, she was still different in so many ways. She may have had the same face, but she was older now; she had grown into herself. She was taller… not that much taller though, obviously, since she was always a shrimp; her fellow cheerleaders mostly towered over her. _She finally managed to tame that mop of hair_, Elle noticed since it was straightened now and flowed down her shoulders in soft ringlets. She was a completely different person now... And yet Elle couldn't forget that last day they'd seen each other. Though the girl had always been a pest, Claire was the first person to ever show any concern for her. It was odd, but she had.

So, Claire had the chance at a normal life where Elle hadn't… It didn't seem to matter too much to her anymore. Even if Claire_ did _end up having an ability, Elle could only feel relieved that the girl got out of the compound before it was too late. She sighed and shook her head in confusion, not understanding her newfound resolution. Glancing down, she shifted the car into reverse.

She couldn't very well watch the girl while she was in school, now could she? This was the perfect opportunity for a Slush-O run. _Yeah_, she thought, _sugary, icy deliciousness will help to clear my head._ Once she was pulled out of the space, she threw the car in drive and peeled out of there.

**CPOV**

Claire Bennet jumped at the sound of tires squealing. She turned her head just in time to see a car peel out of the parking lot. Though her friends didn't give it a second glance, Claire froze at the sight of fairy tale blonde hair. She stood there staring long after the car was gone. _Was that…?_ She shook her head gently, disregarding the thought and headed into the building.

"You okay, Claire?" her friend, Stacy, asked her.

Claire gave her a smile, "Yeah, I'm fine. I'll see you at the pep rally, okay?" Stacy returned her smile and they headed in different directions. Claire quickly picked her way to her first class before the tardy bell rang. Stopping briefly to say hi to a few of her friends, she took her seat just as the teacher walked in the door. _God, I hate math_, she thought. She opened her notebook and started to take notes, but she really wasn't paying attention. Her eyes began to glaze over as her mind drifted elsewhere.

It had been a while since she thought of Elle Bishop. It was _impossible _to forget the girl, of course, but still… it had been a while. The first few years after her father took her away from the compound, she found her thoughts drifting to the older girl quite frequently. Since it was decided Claire would start to go home after school, they suddenly found themselves in need of a babysitter.

Mrs. Florence was her name… and though the woman didn't inflict pain on her like Elle had, Claire seriously considered which one was the lesser of two evils. At least with Elle there was _some_ mental stimulation going on… With Mrs. Florence? Her afternoons consisted of watching the History channel and eating "healthy" snacks. There were several days where Claire almost broke down and pleaded with her father to take her back to Primatech, honestly believing that _Elle_ would be a better babysitter any day… but she held back. For reasons she didn't quite understand, her father didn't want her to be associated with the company he worked for or his boss's daughter. So, she sat there quietly, enduring the torture day after day.

Though Elle had been a royal pain in the ass, Claire couldn't help but be intrigued by the older girl. At first Claire just thought she was odd. She noticed the way all the guys seemed to drift towards her, but Elle was completely oblivious… almost as if she didn't know how strikingly beautiful she was. Granted, her clothes always seemed to be too big for her, and… they never matched… But she was beautiful never the less. Even Claire had to respect that considering the girl did absolutely _nothing _in the morning to make herself look that way. She was just one of those natural beauties that could go outside with absolutely no makeup on, dressed in some sweat pants and a t-shirt, and she would _still _turn heads.

Claire shook her head at the image of the girl.

She made the older blonde sound like a goddess. She was beautiful, yes… but that was just a cover up for the sadistic demon hidden underneath. She grumbled to herself. Claire couldn't count the number of times she didn't get her homework done because the pest interrupted her; either by throwing something at her, pulling her chair out from under her… One time she even convinced Claire that her dad had left without her… which, of course, had her running out into the parking lot to see if their car was still there. Elle had a field day with that one… Claire was pretty sure the girl didn't stop laughing for the rest of the week.

She sighed at the memory.

There was still something about her, though. As irritating as the older blonde was, there were times where Claire would look into her eyes and see other worlds there. She may have been a pain in the ass, but Claire knew, beneath the surface, there was so much more to Elle Bishop that she couldn't even begin to reach. To say the girl was odd was understatement. There were times that she seemed so put together, so in control… but other times she seemed like an alien who was visiting this planet for the first time. It was like she had no concept of privacy or personal space. Claire remembered, on more than one occasion, walking into the ladies room to see Elle sitting on the toilet with the stall door wide open… right there in front of God and everyone… But then, when Claire gave her an odd look, Elle would throw it right back at her… as if _she_ was the one with the problem. Some things people understood as common sense just seemed to _fly_ right over the girl's head!

Then there were times, like the last night they hung out together, where Claire would look into those beautiful, electric pools... and would find pain there. That was one thing that confused the mess out of her. For someone so used to inflicting pain on others, she seemed to be dealing with a lot of pain as well… Only Claire didn't know where it was coming from. She wanted to though. That night… when she saw Elle sitting on her bed, clutching her favorite teddy bear… Claire shook her head at the memory, clenching her jaws to bite back the emotion building within her. She had never seen anyone look so forlorn before. For a moment Claire quite literally forgot all the torturous things Elle had put her through and just wanted to hug the girl. Once Elle snapped out of it though, she was back to her usual self… _And the moment was over_, Claire thought, chuckling softly to herself.

The bell rang, jerking her abruptly out of her thoughts. She had been so lost in her own memories, the noise was extremely shrill to her sensitive ears and she immediately felt a headache coming on.

_Ugh, great_, Claire thought as she quickly gathered up her books and dashed out the door, _I haven't seen the girl in eight years and she's still causing me __pain._

* * *

**A/N: That's it for this chapter, I'm afraid. There will be more next time!**


	4. Chapter 4

**_****Riana Kaiba: I have something like that in mind ;)  
James888 & WGail: Thanks for the reviews!****_**

Chapter 4

* * *

**EPOV**

Elle kept her eyes transfixed on her hand as she formed a tiny ball of electricity and then extinguished it. She repeated the motion for several minutes before letting out exasperated sigh and throwing her head back on the car rest.

_God, stalking people is so boring._

Her Slush-O had kept her happy for a while, but she had finished it an hour ago. _Do I have to sit here during school hours? What could possibly happen while she's in school?_ Elle rolled her eyes. Of course, as soon as Elle thought about leaving, something was bound to happen… or Claire would decide to be a bad girl and skip and Elle would lose track of her… 'Cause where would Elle be? Back at the compound taking a nap probably.

She sighed and looked out the window again. She had lost count of which period this was. She assumed it was their lunch break since most of them seemed to be in or around the cafeteria. Quickly scanning for Claire and not finding her, Elle turned to the file still sitting on her passenger seat. It was calling out to her though she had avoided looking through it up till then. For some reason she felt dirty about looking into the unsuspecting teenager's past. Elle knew the file was for her to look at or else daddy wouldn't have given it to her… but she was still very hesitant about it.

Swallowing gently, she reached over and pulled the folder labeled "Claire Bennet" onto her lap. She quickly flipped through the pages, looking for anything important; anything that might give her a hint to Claire's possible ability. She skipped over the family history. She had learned a few years back that Claire was adopted by the Bennet family and not born into it. Not knowing for sure if Claire herself was aware of that fact, Elle didn't think she should delve into something so private about the girl. Even if Claire knew she was adopted, she more than likely didn't know who her real parents were… So it certainly didn't give Elle the right to see that information when Claire wasn't even privy to it.

Briskly scanning over Claire's medical history, Elle learned that the girl had one serious illness when she was a baby, but that was it. Since that time Claire had not once gotten sick or gotten into any serious accidents. Elle's brow furrowed. _Well, that's kind of odd_, she thought_._ She pushed on, though.

Past the medical records, Elle came across some recent newspaper clippings. Her eyes scanned over the headline and the image below it. _Oh, I remember this… this happened just a couple of weeks ago,_ she thought, confused. She remembered the news of the train wreck well. A cargo train somehow skipped the tracks leaving a lot of death and destruction in it's wake. The whole train was ablaze. Elle quickly skimmed through the article. _Hmmm, I never heard this part of the story._ Apparently, there was someone trapped inside the fiery wreckage, but he was saved by an unidentified cheerleader.

Elle flipped the next page over. _Hmmmmmm, very interesting indeed._

The next page was a police report. It said basically the same thing as the article, only it had one more important detail. The firemen saw the girl pulling the man from the fire and quickly ran to help them. The man had a few burns on him, but aside from that he had no major injuries. The girl, however, was on fire when they came out of the wreckage. One of the firemen quickly tackled her to the ground and proceeded to put out the fire, but later, when he removed his coat, found absolutely no burn marks on her. Seeing that she was okay, he then helped to carry the injured man away from danger. He came back to look for the girl later, but she had fled the scene.

Elle swallowed gently as she read over the report. In spite of herself, she felt the corners of her mouth turning up into a small smile. "Little goody two shoes," she whispered to the empty car, before chuckling softly. She turned to the next page, still musing over what she had just learned, and absently read the first few lines. What she read immediately grabbed her attention. Her eyes widened and she lost her smile as she sat up a little straighter in her seat. She read it over again. According to the second page of the police report, they found the cheerleader responsible at Union Wells High School. She quickly skipped over the minute details until she found a name… Her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. Jackie Wilcox.

_Who the hell is Jackie Wilcox?_

According to the police report, the officer on duty and the fireman from that day visited Union Wells in an attempt to locate the cheerleader. When questioned, one of the co-captains, Jackie Wilcox, stepped forward and claimed responsibility for her actions.

Elle read over that last part again, confusion marring her features. _That can't be right; that little heroic act has Claire's name written all over it._ Looking at the hand written note in the margins, Bob Bishop appeared to agree. He wrote down that the information may be false. _Hmmm_, Elle pondered as she closed the folder once again and set it aside.

She didn't know this Jackie person, but if she had to chose between her and Claire, she'd bet on Claire any day. _I mean, it would be just like her to do something like that,_ she thought, _save someone then run away before she can get rewarded._ She snorted, _definitely a child of Noah Bennet_. Not to mention, that really helped the argument that Claire was an evolve. _She could be a healer… or maybe just really flame tolerant_, Elle thought. The healer thing made more sense though. It would explain how Elle managed to burn the girl's skin only to watch the wound disappear moments later. _It would also explain why she hasn't needed to go to the hospital in over 10 years._

Elle's mind flitted over the possibilities when she was abruptly pulled from her thoughts by the sound of screams. She jerked her gaze over to see several students running across the quad, screaming profusely. _What the…_ Elle thought as she quickly hopped out of the car. Sensing danger, she dashed after them. She had all but caught up to them when they disappeared from sight, but she was right on their heels. Rounding the corner, she abruptly froze when she saw that all of the students were fleeing the cafeteria to rush into another building Elle didn't recognize. _What's going on in there?_ Her mind raced to school shootings and bombs threats. _Oh, no you don't._ She quickly pushed through some students to get into the building, worriedly scanning the crowd for Claire. _Where are you?_ Her mind screamed. Elle scanned all the faces around her, not understanding why their expressions weren't more panicked. They were all… grinning… and practically bouncing with excitement. _What's going on? _She wondered as she slowed her urgent pace. _What… Why do they all look so… peppy?  
_  
It was then that the music started up.

_Oh dear God._

Elle watched in horror as the cheerleaders lined up in the middle of the gymnasium while the students clambered up into the bleachers. _Oh no… no._ Once the music hit a high point, the cheerleaders started doing their routine while the crowd hooted and hollered with them.

_Ugh, this… organized torture_, Elle thought, burying her face into her hands.

She had just mistakenly gotten pulled into a rally of some sort that seemed to revolve around teenage school spirit. _I gotta get out of here_. She turned to dash back out the door she came in, but it was completely blocked by hordes of teenagers. Elle groaned inwardly. Trudging over to an empty space of wall, she begrudgingly leaned back against it, accepting her fate. _I think… I'd rather be strung up by my feet and beaten to death._

_Oh… what did I do to deserve this?_

Elle watched on as the football team ran out and the audience exploded into another loud roar of cheers. A voice came over the speakers announcing that the captain of the football team, Jody something or other, would now say a few words. The dark headed boy stepped forward and took the mic, jumping right in to his peppy speech that had all the students and cheerleaders bouncing once again. Elle grimaced. Her eyes sought out Claire again but she was distracted when she felt a presence at her shoulder.

Turning her head to the side she was met with… a chest? Glancing up, she found a very tall guy grinning down at her with a crooked smile. "Hey," he said in a deep rumble.

_I don't have time for this_, she thought.

Elle crossed her arms and straightened up to meet his gaze, not feeling the slightest bit intimidated by his massive height. She stared up at him, raising her eyebrows expectantly, but he just continued to stare at her. _Uhh… okay? This whole "let's stare at the freak show" thing is getting old._ Elle waited a moment longer before getting irritated, "Did. You. _Need_. Some-thing?" she clipped off at him, using as much venom as she could muster. He shrunk back at her tone and returned to his friends with his tail between his legs. _Yeah, that's right you pompous ass._

"Now let's hear it for our town hero!" the voice echoed over the speakers again. Elle returned to her previous laid back position as she watched one of the cheerleaders walk forward to take the mic. _This must be Jackie Wilcox_, Elle thought.

"Hey everyone! Jackie here" she started, "Let's give it up for the guys!" She yelled and the crowd cheered the football team on again. Elle rolled her eyes. _Everyone in this room would quite literally disintegrate if I ever showed that much enthusiasm._ The co-captain continued, "And just as I pulled a man from a burning train…" she paused for dramatic affect as everyone cooed. She nodded solemnly, "… I know that our guys will lead us tonight with the same courage and bravery!" The crowd erupted into cheers again. Elle gagged.

The cheerleader continued to ramble on about herself, but Elle stopped listening. Instead she glanced back over to Claire. Inspecting all the cheerleaders expressions, Claire was the only one who wasn't smiling at the so-called "town hero". Elle studied her silently. _She's either jealous… or angry that Jackie is taking credit for her good deed._ Elle bet it was the latter. Sighing, she turned her attention back to the blabber mouth who was just finishing up.

Once the speeches were over, the cheerleaders moved to line up across the gym floor once again. They performed cheer after cheer, all of which the crowd happily recited along with them.

Elle had never heard such nonsense before in her life.

She was seriously considering whether or not she could hold her Slush-O down any longer when she returned her eyes to Claire. Her gag reflexes immediately relaxed when she saw the smile back on the younger blonde's face. She watched on as the girl climbed atop a very ridiculous looking pyramid. Once there, she stood up and pumped her fists in the air as the crowd roared.

Despite all the mind numbing, stomach churning mess going on in over-crowded room, Elle found a small smile gracing her lips as she watched the young cheerleader. Claire smiled brightly at everyone before falling back into her teammates waiting arms. _That was kinda cool,_ Elle thought idly as she watched her… _Wait, what?_ Elle's eyebrows scrunched together as she realized she had actually started to enjoy herself. She shook her head, ridding herself of the thought before taking back up her angry pose from before. She had _not_ been enjoying herself. She just found the cheerleader amusing was all.

Elle grumbled softly.

[later that night]

After the pep rally was over, she continued to follow Claire at a safe distance for the rest of the day. She even went to the stupid football game. She wore a baseball cap, though, in an attempt to hide herself. With her light blonde hair, she stood out too easily. She was surprised she made it out of the pep rally without Claire detecting her, but she wasn't taking any chances this time. During the pep rally she had been sitting off to the side, but at the football game… she sat right in front of the pep squad.

It was pretty entertaining, she had to admit. She didn't really understand the football portion, so she kept her eyes trained on the cheerleaders instead. She didn't think Claire would recognize her with the cap on but she still ducked her head whenever the cheerleader looked her way... which wasn't often. She spent most of the time laughing with her friends when she wasn't cheering. _She looks like she's having fun,_ Elle noted.

The game aside from that was pretty uneventful. Their team won, but hell if that meant anything to her. She was just glad the night was finally over; it had been a long day and she was ready to pass out. She trudged out under the bleachers to head to her car when she heard the Jackie girl squeal. Elle looked over and saw the cheer squad bounding onto their bus.

"Everyone's going to the bonfire, right?" her question was followed by a bunch of hoots and hollers.

Elle stopped and blinked slowly; realization slowly sinking in. Apparently the night had only just begun.

_Ugh… fan-freakin-tastic._

Elle quickly dashed over to her car and hopped in. She revved up the engine a few times before quickly tailing the bus out of the parking lot.

**CPOV**

Claire stared into the fire while she listened in to the conversation going on behind her.

"Flames were everywhere, oh my god," Jackie rambled on to her avid audience, "I could hear the poor man coughing somewhere inside the train car, but..." She shook her head, "There was smoke everywhere, I couldn't see." Her voice broke, "I was so scared, you guys." The other girls voiced their concern for Jackie and they all reached out to comfort her. Claire rolled her eyes.

_Is she ever going to let that go?_ She thought bitterly. _The things that girl would do to be crowned Homecoming queen._ Claire sighed and lost herself in the fire. Her eyes glazed over and she was brought back to that day.

Her and her friend Zach had been out, testing the limit of Claire's power on videotape… Zach was the only one that knew about her. They were on their way home when they saw the wreckage… Claire shuddered. At first it was just meant to be another experiment. She told Zach to cut the camera on and she ran into the disaster area, hoping to catch on fire. Little did she know when she ran into one of the train cars that she would have company. The man was trapped under a piece of the wreckage… He was surrounded by fire. Claire didn't think, she reacted. Quickly jumping into the wall of fire, she freed his legs and then helped him limp away from the scene. She didn't even realize she was on fire until the fireman pushed her to the ground, patting her down quickly with his coat. Once she had convinced him that she was alright, he helped to carry the man off… leaving Claire the perfect opportunity to get away.

She swallowed gently feeling tears welling up at the back of her eyes. She didn't know what was going on with her. It was only a year or so ago that she started to realize there was something different about her… and only quite recently did she realize how far that difference reached. She was, in a way, immortal. She could be hurt, yes, but only temporarily… until the wound closed itself again. She never realized how unusual it was that she never got sick. But now to add her regenerative ability to the mix… All she needed was a tent and some clowns and she could have her own little freak show. People would come from all around to see the famous Indestructible Girl…

She wrapped her arms around herself tightly, hoping to rid herself of the image.

She didn't know who else to talk to about it. She couldn't tell her parents… What would they do if they found out about her? Would they send her somewhere? Would they disown her? She squeezed her eyes shut. _No, I can't tell them_, she thought. Reopening her eyes, she stared into the fire again. This is why she had started wondering about her birth parents. She told her parents she wanted to meet them… and her dad was in the process of locating them. Maybe they would have some answers… maybe they were like her.

She could only hope.

She felt a gently nudge on her shoulder. Glancing over, she found Brody, the quarterback of the football team, standing there.

She smiled softly.

Suddenly the night didn't seem quite so bad.

Brody was the most sought after guy at school; every girl wanted a piece of him. Recently even she and Jackie had been in competition for his affection. Jackie was shameless in her flirtation with the football captain, whereas Claire took a more subtle approach.

"Nice effigy," he said, giving a pointed look to the giant bear laid across the fire. The bear was a project she had worked on just for this night. The opposing team's mascot was a bear… so it seemed poetic to dress him up in a football jersey and roast him on the fire.

Claire laughed. "Thanks. I stayed up all night stuffing him full of newspaper," she replied, admiring her handiwork.

He gave her his most charming smile, "I would have filled his head full of fire crackers, but… that's just me."

She chuckled.

"That would have been cool," she said.

He nodded and reached out to gently grab her waist, pulling her back a few steps. "Careful," he said, giving her a crooked smile, "Get too close and you'll end up like that guy."

Claire grinned widely and took a second to come up with a witty response, "I'm not as flammable as he is."

He chuckled before motioning her to walk with him. "Darrel Ledger's got a kegger in the back of his truck," he told her as they reached their destination. He reached out and grabbed two cups of beer for them before handing one to her.

"Are you sure this is okay?" she asked worriedly.

"We're thirty miles from home," he shrugged off her question, "Who's gonna know?" He offered her another crooked smile before they walked around the fire together.

After a few minutes of silence, he spoke softly to her, "I haven't heard you laugh in a while… Is everything okay?"

Claire offered him a small smile, "Yeah," she felt herself blushing slightly, "It's just family stuff, you know?"

He nodded solemnly, "You wanna talk about it?"

She looked up to meet his eyes. The blue in them flickered from the firelight. She smiled softly. "Not tonight," she said.

He returned her smile before looking over her shoulder to the fire. Claire wondered what he was looking at when suddenly she heard a ruckus behind her. Turning around she saw the bear's head explode from a dozen firecrackers. She watched in shock before she laughed out loud, "Did you put firecrackers in his head just for me?" she asked, turning back to him.

He smiled at her for a moment before leaning in to catch her lips softly with his own. Claire froze, surprised by the movement, but returned the kiss after a second. When he pulled back, she smiled at him again, finding his eyes dancing in the firelight. He quietly wrapped an arm around her and started walking again.

"You wanna go for a walk?" he asked.

She grinned, "Sure."

**EPOV**

Elle blinked rapidly, trying to force her eyes to stay open.

After she followed the bus back to the school, she watched as the over eager teens split up into several vehicles and headed out into the middle of nowhere. Now she was sitting in the middle of some parked cars, watching as _they_ had fun… and _she_ was bored out of her skull.

For the most part, she had a good visual of Claire. Every now and then her vision was blocked by a truck or something, but whenever she looked around for the cheerleader she could usually find her.

That didn't help her tiredness though.

She'd kept this up all day… Couldn't she call it a night? She sighed.

She began to wonder if she could zap some of the more drunken teens out of harmless fun… It's not like they would remember in the morning anyway. There were a couple of them making out against the car right next to hers. Smiling wickedly, she started to roll her window down as her plan formed. _This will be too easy,_ she thought. She glanced around quickly to make sure no one was watching as she draped her arm outside the company car window. She was poised and ready to strike when her eyes sought out Claire again. Pausing midzap, she squinted her eyes.

_Where did she go?_

Elle's eyes flitted over the teens. _She was there a second ago_, she thought as she focused on the spot in front of the fire where the girl had been standing. Grumbling, she sat up straighter and scanned the crowd. _Come on, Claire, you're putting a hold on my good fun_, she thought, agitated. When she still couldn't find the younger blonde several moments later, she relented, pulling her arm back into the car and rolling up the window. _You better be out there, cheerleader._

Elle got out of the car and slowly began to ease her way towards the bonfire, being careful to peek around the vehicles so that Claire wouldn't spot her. When she still didn't see the girl anywhere, she began to worry. Elle walked around the fire a couple of times, inspecting every group… but there was no Claire.

That's when she spotted the lonely girl. Elle didn't recognize her, but maybe she saw where Claire went.

Elle watched the lone teenager for a moment, wondering what was up with her. She looked broken as she hugged herself and stared off into the distance. Elle followed her eyes and looked out into the darkness, but saw nothing. Carefully she decided to approach the girl.

"Ahem."

The girl's gaze shot up to hers quickly. Elle offered her a small smile, "Hi, I'm uh… looking for Claire Bennet. Do you know where she ran off to?"

Her eyes widened notably before she quickly looked down, blushing. _Um… okay._ Elle watched her for a moment, waiting for her to speak. The girl looked back up to Elle with saddened eyes, "She went off with Brody." She spoke softly.

"Who?" Elle prodded.

"The quarterback," the girl stated before pointing a finger out towards the darkness where she'd been staring earlier.

Elle nodded and followed the direction of her finger. "Thank you."

Trudging out into the darkness, Elle grumbled softly to herself. _You better be worth all this, Claire_, she thought as her heel got caught in the dirt. She quickly followed the darkened trail until she found herself at an abandoned football field. _Hmmm,_ she thought. _A little after dark cheerleading practice?_ She walked along the bleachers, but stilled when she heard a noise. Looking around, she tried to adjust her eyes to the darkness.

_What was that?_

She heard a giggle somewhere in front of her and shot her eyes towards the end of the bleachers. There she found her cheerleader… wrapped in the arms of the quarterback.

Something in Elle stirred at the sight, and it wasn't pretty. Clenching her fists, she immediately began storming towards the two hormonal teens before she forced herself to stop. _What am I doing? _She questioned herself. As much as it sickened her, Claire was a teenager after all… and this is what teenagers did… right?

She was about to walk off when her eyes drifted farther down. She bit down on her lip hard as she watched the quarterback's hands roam over the smaller girl. She felt like pummeling his ass. _How dare he touch her?_ Before she realized it, her feet had carried her significantly closer to the unsuspecting couple before she stopped herself again. _Cut it out_, she yelled at her feet. Claire couldn't see her… She needed to get out of there before the cheerleader spotted her and started asking questions.

She started to turn and head back the way she came when she heard Claire's voice. "Let's just… take a breather, okay?" she said kind of breathlessly. Elle turned back and watched as the cheerleader turned away from him. He mumbled something in her ear as he continued to run his hands over her. Elle's jaw clenched as she ground her teeth together. She heard his voice then.

"You know what? You just need to relax," he said in a soft voice as he attempted to push Claire back down.

"_What?_ What's gotten into you?" she shrieked in fear, trying to push against his hands.

"I just… really like you, Claire," he said, chuckling softly while he tightened his grip.

"Stop!" she cried as he forced her on her back before quickly pulling at her clothes, "Don't!"

"C'mon Claire, I know you wa-" that was the last syllable he got out as Elle threw him into the fence. He made a loud clash as he stumbled down onto the ground. She heard Claire gasp from behind her but she kept her eyes locked on the boy. It took every ounce of control she had not to light his ass up right then and there.

"Get the hell out of here!" she snarled at him, giving him her most threatening look. He looked like a wounded puppy in that moment before he scrambled to his feet and took off.

Elle grumbled but let him go. As much as she wanted to, Claire didn't know about her ability… and she wasn't about to showcase it in front of her. Turning around, she found the girl on the ground, staring up at her with tear stained eyes. At first there was a look of confusion… then recognition and shock as she gaped up at the older blonde.

_Oh shit_, she thought. _I didn't think this through, did I?_

Claire continued to stare up at her with wide, disbelieving eyes.

"_Elle?"

* * *

_

**A/N: Sorry about the cliff hanger :) this chapter was already way too long, though.**


	5. Chapter 5

**_****Riana Kaiba, HarukaFairbanks, WGail: You guys are awesome :). I haven't gotten a lot of reviewers, but as long as y'all keep reading, I'll keep writing :) I hope y'all like this next installment. Serna93: That's actually very cool that you're reading my fic from Spain. Thanks for your support! :)_****_****_**

Chapter 5

* * *

**EPOV**

"_Elle?"_

Elle stared down at the girl with a dumbfounded expression. Instinctively she wanted to dip her chin down and cover her face with the bill of her hat, but, of course, she had taken it off earlier in the car. So, she stood there… hatless… with nowhere to hide.

_Damnit._

"What are you doing here?" Claire's voice was shaky and full of emotion.

She gulped, "I uhh…" She noticed that Claire was still on the ground getting her uniform dirty. Taking a moment, she moved to help the girl up, buying her a few precious seconds.

_What do I tell her?_

_You have to lie! She can't know about you or the company!_

_But what do I say?_

"I umm…" Elle swallowed again as she watched Claire straighten her uniform.

_Lie, lie, lie! Come on, you're an expert at this; make something up!_

She took in a sharp breath.

Quickly plastering a fake smile on her face, she relaxed her expression and fell into actress mode. "Well, I was at the football game," Elle stated, gesturing with her hands. She noted the look of surprise on Claire's face. _Oh boy, she knows me better than I thought_. She grimaced inwardly as she tried to muster up some enthusiasm. "Oh yeah, _biiig_… football… person," she struggled to choke out. Claire raised an eyebrow and seemed to be regarding her with a skeptical eye. Elle started to panic. Before she gave it a second thought, she nodded her head enthusiastically and quickly raised her arm in a half-assed fist pump, "Gooooo _tigers_."

"Wildcats," Claire deadpanned.

"_Yeah_, and umm," _Damn… okay, so this isn't going well_, "Well, I was heading out to my car, and I heard there was gonna be a party out here tonight, sooo…" She shrugged her shoulders, "I decided to crash!" She declared with fake cheerfulness in her voice. She couldn't take much more of this peppiness. She quickly decided to direct the attention off of her.

Glancing pointedly in the direction Douche Bag took off, she finished by saying "Guess it's a good thing I did, huh?" She let out a small, nervous laugh.

Claire looked over to where the football player had been standing only moments before. Her eyes glazed over, and Elle immediately lost her smile. Claire stood there for a long moment, her features quickly distorting into a painful expression as she unconsciously wrapped her arms around herself. Even in the dark, Elle could make out the small glint of unshed tears in her eyes. She didn't need to be a mind reader to know that Claire was replaying everything that had just happened in her mind.

Elle opened her mouth to say something, but stopped when Claire slid her tearful eyes over to hers. The emotion emanating from the smaller girl made Elle's heart ache. Suddenly she was no longer concerned about the company or their opposing fathers… suddenly she was right back where she was eight years ago, looking into the eyes of a broken little girl. Elle swallowed hard. She couldn't say anything then, because Claire was looking at her the way she always used to… Looking deeply into Elle's eyes as if searching for something. Before she realized what was happening, the younger girl stepped forward and slid her arms around Elle's neck, pulling the older girl into a gentle hug.

Elle froze.

She wasn't very accustomed to physical forms of affection, but she wasn't about to push the girl away either. So, awkwardly, Elle wrapped her arms around the cheerleader's back and held her. But then she could feel Claire shaking underneath her touch, and she completely forgot about her intimacy issues. Elle held the trembling girl tighter to her, mentally cursing the little fuck that did this to her. She had half a mind to go find him and make him wish he'd never been born. But she wouldn't leave Claire… not like this. Elle clamped her jaws together to bite back the ravaging emotions swirling around within her.

Claire needed her.

She took a few deep breaths trying to control her rage. Once she had somewhat calmed down, she turned her head to press her mouth close to Claire's ear. "Let's get you out of here," she murmured softly. She felt the younger girl nod before sniffling and pulling back. Elle didn't let her go too far. Wrapping an arm around her tiny waist, Elle pulled Claire's shaking frame against her as they started to walk back the way they came. Elle made sure to give the bonfire a wide birth thinking that Claire probably didn't want her friends to see her like this. Once they reached the company car, Elle quickly ushered her to the passenger seat, grateful that she had hidden the file from earlier in the back. _That's the last thing I need right now_, she thought. Making her way over to the driver's side, she quickly got in and drove them out of there.

Claire didn't say anything on the way back to her house. Elle glanced over at her a few times, but Claire kept her gaze trained out the window. Elle swallowed softly. She wasn't really good in situations like this… Hell, she wasn't really good in any social situation. She knew she needed to say something, but when it came to comforting people… Well, it wasn't exactly her forte.

When they pulled into Claire's driveway, Elle put the car in park and rested back against her seat. Neither of them made a move to get out. Elle turned her head again and watched the cheerleader quietly for a few moments. She could practically feel the waves of distress flowing from the girl. Claire kept her arms wound tightly around herself as if that would somehow keep the jackass from ever touching her again. Elle felt her throat tighten. _If I ever see that kid again…_

She opened her mouth to say something, but it was difficult for her. Biting down on her lip for a moment, she tried again.

"Are you…" Elle started, leaving the rest of the question up for interpretation.

Claire finally turned to look at her. She offered Elle a small smile. "I'll be fine," she said so softly Elle barely heard her. She wasn't focused on that, though. Claire was looking at her in that way again… almost as if she was looking right into Elle's soul.

Her gaze was so intense. It seemed like she was having some mental debate. Elle just sat there rigidly waiting for the girl to decide… whatever it was she was trying to decide. After a few long, treacherous moments, Claire let out a resigned breath and blinked slowly, finally making her decision.

Elle watched perplexed as the girl unfastened her seatbelt and started to lean over the armrest. _What is she_… Elle never finished the thought. Her heart seemed to leap up into her throat, blocking her airway, as she felt Claire's inexplicably soft lips press against her cheek. Elle's heartbeat was pounding in her ears. She tried taking in a calming breath, but found her head swimming with Claire's intoxicating scent. _Damn_. Swallowing hard, she sat frozen until the cheerleader finally pulled back in her seat.

Claire's eyes searched Elle's again. Even in the dark, Elle could see Claire's jaw muscles flexing as she tried to keep her composure. "Thank you," Claire finally said, her voice cracking with emotion.

Elle nodded absently.

Claire let out a soft breath before pulling herself together and getting out of the car.

Elle just watched.

When Claire was finally out of sight, Elle released the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.

_What... the _fuck_... was that?_

Elle shook her head vigorously, trying to rid herself of whatever the hell she had been feeling earlier. Pulling out of the driveway quickly, Elle floored it back to the compound.

[the next morning]  
**CPOV**

"Claire!" her mother called from downstairs, "Breakfast is ready!"

Claire blinked her scratchy eyes tiredly. She didn't think her eyes closed once the entire night.

Once she made it back in the house, she quickly changed and flopped down on her bed… and she hadn't moved from that spot.

She couldn't stop thinking… replaying the events from the previous night over and over again in her head…

_Brody tried to rape me._

She found it difficult to breathe whenever those words resonated in her thoughts.

She had a crush on the guy for months. He just… seemed so sweet when he was talking to her. He even went out of his way to do nice things for her. Like last night… he put the firecrackers in the bear's head in an attempt to make her smile.

What happened to _that_ Brody?

She couldn't shake the feeling of his hands crawling all over her, pushing under her shirt… trying to pull her skirt off.

He was so close…

… But then Elle showed up.

Claire turned over onto her back letting out a loud groan as her muscles cramped in protest. She sunk back into the bed, letting her pillows and comforter engulf her as she thought of the older blonde.

_Had she really been there? Or did I imagine that?_

At some point during the night she had convinced herself that it was an illusion… Elle hadn't been there. But then she started to wonder how she got home, and she came to the same conclusion every time.

Elle _had_ been there. She knew it for a fact. Even the odd way she was dressed seemed to indicate it was real.

Every time Claire thought of the older girl, she always saw her in the same fashion… shoulder length blonde hair, dressed in clothes that didn't compliment her figure at all. _But last night_…

Claire didn't think that it was possible for the girl to get any more beautiful… But Elle proved her wrong.

She was older now… Her hair was longer and professionally cut to frame her angled features. She had been dressed in a business suit and heels… all of which accented her body perfectly.

Her eyes were the only thing that didn't change.

_Those eyes_… When Elle had turned around and looked at her… Claire had almost forgotten how brilliant her eyes were. They almost seemed to glow in the darkness… and Claire got lost in them. She had gaped up at those beautiful, electric pools for several long moments before she seemed to find her voice again.

Claire knew Elle was lying about the football game, but she didn't really have time to question her about it. The events from only moments before took first priority in her mind as she replayed what happened over and over again. She still couldn't believe it.

Elle had taken her home, being _surprisingly _caring of the younger girl. Claire shook her head, chastising herself. _That's not fair to Elle_, she thought. Though Claire remembered her as a big bully, she knew the girl wasn't a _complete_ monster. Of _course_ Elle had taken care of her. And Claire had thanked her for it.

_But where is she now?_

She had finally run into the girl again after all these years, and didn't once think to get her phone number. _Although my mind was pretty occupied already…_

Claire sighed and finally pulled herself out of bed.

She quickly scarfed down her breakfast and got ready for school, dreading having to see anyone that day. She tried to convince her mom to let her stay home, but she wasn't sick… so Sandra wasn't having it.

_It's okay,_ she thought to herself, _We don't share any classes__ so it'll be easy to avoid him._

After her little pep talk, she headed out for school.

The day dragged on, but fortunately passed uneventfully. Any time she saw Brody she took off in the opposite direction. She heard some people stopping to whisper as she walked by, but she didn't pay them any mind. People were always gossiping.

As she started to walk away from the school grounds, she heard someone call after her.

"Claire! Wait up!"

It was Zach. She had kind of been avoiding him, too. Not that he did anything to offend her, she just wasn't ready for his questions yet. She stopped and turned anyway though.

Zach jogged to catch up, pushing his bike along side him. "Hey," he said when he finally reached her side. "How did the bonfire go last night?"

Claire sighed. "Boring," she lied with a small smile.

He chuckled, "Figured it would be." He gestured towards his bike. "You want a ride home?"

Claire regarded the bike skeptically like she always did. "No thanks," she told him, "I kinda want to walk home today… Clear my head a little."

He looked concerned, "Everything okay?"

She waved off his question, "Just the usual." She didn't like lying to him, but at this point it was just easier to lie than to tell the truth. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

He nodded, not really looking convinced, but he hopped on his bike and rode off, tossing a little wave over his shoulder. Claire watched him ride off into the distance before she started the long trek back home.

She had actually enjoyed being in school. She didn't really talk to anyone, but being in class helped to keep her mind off of things. Now that she was out though, her mind was free to wonder over recent events… which included the situation with Brody.

_What am I going to do?_

She knew she should probably tell her parents, but she wasn't exactly sure how to go about that. She knew her father would be disappointed in her for walking off by herself with some guy, but he would be even more mad at Brody… He may even try to have him arrested. That wouldn't be any good though. _Brody will just deny everything_, she thought. And she had no way of proving what had _almost_ happened.

But there was Elle…

Would she testify against him if it was taken to court? It would certainly help if she had an eye witness. Claire shook her head quickly. The thoughts of taking this to court were making her sick.

Claire continued to walk absently along the sidewalk. She stopped when she reached the gas station, debating whether or not she wanted an ice cream sandwich. While she stood there, she glanced around the parking lot and saw a familiar car parked on the end. She stopped and squinted at the vehicle, trying to figure out where she had seen it before. _It's one of the company cars_, Claire finally decided. It was one of the cars from her dad's paper company… similar to the one she had ridden in last night.

Last night…

Elle.

Claire's eyes quickly darted to the gas station again. She stayed frozen like that for several moments before finally making the decision to go in.

The bell over the door chimed as she pushed it open. Throwing a smile over to the guy behind the register, Claire slowly started walking the isles. She wasn't looking for anything in particular, just idly wandering. Finally, when she reached the very end, her eyes found the back of a very professionally dressed young woman; her yellow blonde hair flowing down between her shoulder blades. Claire just stood there, watching as the girl poured herself a Slush-O… _A Slush-O? _

In spite of herself, she felt a small smile creeping onto her face. Only Elle would walk into a convenience store, dressed to impress, and fix herself a cherry slushie.

Claire snickered softly.

Elle tensed at the sound.

Slowly turning around, her eyes found the shorter girl. Claire smiled at her. She couldn't really read the look in the taller blonde's eyes. Shock maybe? But she quickly hid it while she put a top on her drink.

"You almost made me spill my Slush-O, twerp," Elle said. Claire rolled her eyes at the nick name but continued to watch the girl.

Elle grabbed a straw before turning to her, "So, was Jody at school today?"

Claire felt her brow furrow in confusion, "Who?"

"Jody," Elle stated simply as she turned her attention back to her drink. She tossed the straw paper into the garbage and proceeded to place the straw in the cup. While taking a sip, she fixed her brilliant blue eyes back on the younger girl, "The guy from last night."

Claire raised her eyebrows, "You mean Brody?"

Elle wrinkled her nose at the name. "I think I like Jody better," she stated as she turned to walk to the line in front of the register.

Claire let out a small chuckle. "Jody is a _girl's_ name," she informed her.

The taller blonde turned and gave her an odd look, "So?" Sipping her drink, she shrugged as she turned back around nonchalantly, "With the way he ran away last night, I seriously doubt the guy has any balls."

Claire choked on the sudden laughter that erupted from her throat. Elle threw a smile over her shoulder before going to pay for her Slush-O. Claire smiled at the girl's back, shaking her head gently. She reached up and rubbed the front of her throat, surprised that it actually felt sore after laughing. Claire stared off into space. _It's been a while since I laughed like that_, she thought, returning her eyes to the girl standing in front of her. She smiled softly.

Elle turned back to the cheerleader, obviously happy with her purchase as she gulped it down. Claire giggled at the sight before falling into step beside her. "So… you're giving me a ride home," she stated simply.

Elle looked at her with disbelieving eyes, "Oh, am I now?"

Claire offered her a small grin, "Yep."

Elle shook her head but didn't say anything as Claire hopped into the passenger seat beside her.

They spent the first few minutes of the car ride in silence… well, with the exception of Elle slurping her drink. Claire watched her for a few moments; she seemed to be really focused on the road.

"So…" Claire finally started.

Elle raised an eyebrow at her, not removing her lips from the straw.

Claire rolled her eyes. "We haven't seen each other in eight years," she complained.

Elle let out a bark of a laugh. "Yeah well," she spoke softly, "There's a reason for that."

Claire watched her questioningly. Her tone was light, but by the expression on her face Claire knew that it was a sore subject for her. She decided not to press it.

Claire looked forward again to realize they were already pulling into her driveway. _Damn, that was fast_, she thought. She looked back over to Elle, not really ready to let her go yet. She had so many questions for her… What were the chances of her running into the older blonde again like she had that afternoon?

Elle glanced over at her, probably wondering why she wasn't moving to exit the car.

Claire made a snap decision and quickly pulled out her phone. "Give me your phone number," she said.

"What?" Elle started, "Why do you need my phone number?"

"So we can catch up," Claire stated in an exasperated fashion, "I haven't seen you in eight years, Elle!"

Elle rolled her eyes and flopped her head back on the headrest. "I doubt your father would approve of that, Claire," she responded in all seriousness before looking over to meet her eyes.

Claire almost lost her resolve under that icy gaze… _Almost._

She stared at Elle a moment longer before responding back in an equally serious tone, "Then I guess he just won't know about it."

Elle raised her eyebrows ever so slightly as she studied the younger girl. Now, it was just down to a serious staring competition. Once Elle realized that Claire wasn't going to back down, she groaned. "Okay _fine_," she stated, quickly taking Claire's phone from her and punching in the number, "Just don't send me any stupid cheerleading forwards, okay?"

Claire chuckled softly.

"You have my word."

* * *

**A/N: That's it for Chapter 5 :) What did y'all think?**


	6. Chapter 6

_******Sorry for the wait, guys. I had some difficulty with this chapter, but I think it's fixed now. Hope you like it!******_

Chapter 6

* * *

**CPOV  
**_  
"You just need to relax," Brody's disgusting voice whispered in her ear as he ran his hands over her body._

_Claire gasped and tried to seize his hands, "What? No, Brody. Stop! What's gotten into you?" She screamed for help, but no one came._

"_I just… really like you, Claire," he was laughing at her now; laughing at her feeble efforts as he pushed her down on her back, "I know you like me, too."_

"_NO!" she screamed louder, but Brody continued to rip her shirt. She tried to fight him but it was useless. "Don't!"_

_Brody continued to laugh. He laughed until that was all Claire could hear. "C'mon, Claire. I know you want it just as badly as I do," he slipped his hand under her skirt._

"_NO!" she cried again, tears streaming down her face, "No no-"_

"NO!" Claire shouted as she bolted upright. Gasping for breath, she frantically examined her surroundings. She took note of everything; the dressers, the closet, the night stand... the bed she was sitting on. She was in her room. Claire took in some deep, ragged breaths as she tried to calm down. _It was just a dream_, she thought, placing her hand on her forehead to wipe away the sweat there.

She was burning up.

Quickly kicking away her comforter, she sat on the edge of the bed while she tried to compose herself. _Ugh, God, I'm a mess_, she thought as she closed her eyes. The whole night she had been plagued by images of Brody… Only, in her dreams, Elle wasn't there to save her. She shook her head roughly, trying to discard the images. _I need a distraction_, she decided.

She got up and took a shower, hoping to rid herself of the awful nightmares, before she headed downstairs for breakfast. The rest of her family had already been up for a while, so she took her bowl of cereal into the living room, hoping maybe the t.v. would distract her.

_There is absolutely nothing on today_, Claire thought as she started to flick through the channels again for the third time. _Why is it the one day of the week I actually have time to watch t.v. there's nothing on?_ She shook her head and set down the remote as she heard her mother's voice drift in from the other room.

"_Yes_, Mr. Muggles," Sandra Bennet spoke using her high-pitched, baby cooing voice, "We got your hair did and your nails trimmed…"

Claire snorted. Who needs t.v. with a mom like that?

"Claire!" her mom called. Claire groaned and cut off the t.v. before heading into the kitchen.

"Yeah mom?" she asked, stopping to put her bowl in the sink. She turned to find her mom placing Mr. Muggles in his pet carrier. _Are they going somewhere?_

"Your dad and I are heading to San Angelo for the day," she said, answering Claire's silent question, "Mr. Muggles has got a show later on tonight, so we'll probably just stay over there till tomorrow." Sandra turned her gaze back to her daughter, "You gonna be alright here by yourself?"

Claire felt her heart drop. By herself? "Where's Lyle gonna be?" she asked.

"Oh, don't you remember, honey?" her mom asked as she lifted the pet carrier off the counter, "He made plans to stay at Jason's house tonight." She leaned over and pecked the teenager on the cheek. "You can invite some of your friends over to keep you company, but _no boys_," she said, giving her daughter a stern look, "And try to keep the number down to about five, okay? We don't want any wild mixer parties going on while we're gone."

Noah Bennet walked into the kitchen then, "You ready, hon? We need to be getting on the road."

"Yes, just let me get my bags," she said, hurriedly carrying Mr. Muggles out of the kitchen.

Claire's father gave her a small smile before walking over to embrace her. "You've been awfully quiet the last couple of days, kiddo."

Claire shrugged, swallowing gently as she returned the hug. "Just have a lot on my mind, I guess," she replied before looking up at him.

Noah turned to look over his shoulder, knowing he needed to be leaving soon. "Maybe we can talk about it when I get back?" he asked, turning his gaze back to his daughter.

Claire smiled softly. "We'll see," she said, leaning up to kiss his cheek quickly. "Have fun in San Angelo."

Noah nodded, a wary expression on his face, "Oh yes, fun fun." Claire giggled. He started to walk out of the kitchen before turning back one last time. "Hey, why don't you invite Jackie over? You two haven't really hung out in a while," he offered.

Claire gave him a tight grin, "Okay, Dad. I'll think about it."

He smiled before turning and helping his wife take their things out to the car.

Claire sighed and stood there, listening to the suffocating silence that came with the empty house. She didn't want to invite Jackie over. In fact, she didn't really want to invite any of her friends over… But she didn't want to stay there by herself either, not after what happened. Though she had been doing her best to push everyone away, she wasn't ready to be _completely_ alone yet… especially with the dreams she'd been having.

Claire's mouth twitched up into a small smile as she suddenly had a brilliant idea.

_Maybe…_

**EPOV**

Elle stuffed a handful of cheetos in her mouth and munched happily. Ever since she started this stalking gig, she hadn't eaten any real food. She'd basically been living off of Slush-Os, cheetos, and those deli sandwich things. _I should probably go to a restaurant for supper rather than making another stop at the convenience store,_ she thought. It was just so… _convenient_, though. It was only about five minutes away from the Bennet residence, so Elle could just drop by real quick and come back before she missed a thing.

Her phone beeped beside her. She looked at it curiously. Reading the screen she saw that she had a new text message. Elle groaned. _I really hope it isn't another forward from Bobby_, she thought.

Bobby still worked at the company. He wasn't the mail boy anymore though, no no. Just recently he had moved up to one of the file clerk positions. Elle rolled her eyes. _It was such a big step up for him, too_, she thought sarcastically as she opened her phone.

_Hmmmm… An unknown number_. Who besides Bobby and her dad would possibly be texting her?

She opened the message and suddenly felt her heart stop. She read the message again and stared at the name attached to it:

_**hey elle, do u have ne plans 2nite? ~claire**_

_I knew giving that brat my phone number was a bad idea_, she thought, aggravated. She quickly punched in her response.

_**Why?**_

Yes, she was quite the text whiz. She shook her head as she waited for the girl's answer. Her phone beeped again a moment later.

_**the parents are out of town and lyle left 4 the nite. i have the whole house 2 myself. i thought maybe u'd like 2 come hang out?**_

Elle scoffed. _Who does this girl think she is?_ she thought. "Don't you know I'm busy?" she nearly shouted at her phone… _Watching your house_, she added silently. She sighed, defeated. _Okay, so maybe I don't have a life, but that doesn't change anything_. The two of them hanging out period was a bad idea, but under Noah Bennet's roof? Nuh uh. She quickly pushed the numbers on her phone again.

_**I don't think so**_.

She set the phone back down, hoping that was it, before returning her eyes to the girl's house.

Her phone beeped again.

She groaned.

Opening it, she read the next message.

_**ugh cmon elle, is it really gonna kill u 2 hang out w/ me?**_

Elle pretended to think on that one for a while. _Hmmmm_. She typed out her answer.

_**Yes.**_

Elle could just see Claire rolling her eyes at the response. She snickered and stuffed a few more cheetos into her mouth. Her phone beeped again.

_**elllllle, plzzz?**_

_Oh yes, because stretching out my name will definitely make me change my mind,_ she thought.

_**No.**_

She couldn't help the snort of a laugh that escaped her as she shook her head. Claire was kind of cute when she wanted to be. Elle started to put another cheeto in her mouth and froze.

… _Cute?_

_Wtf?_

Her phone beeped, cutting off her thoughts.

_**elle, please? i really dont want 2 stay by myself after what happened the other nite.**_

Elle groaned. _Ugh, you're gonna play that card, are you?_ She sighed and stared down at her phone for a moment. She shook her head and typed out her next response.

_**Why don't you get one of your peppy little pom pom waver friends to come over?**_

Elle stared down at her phone, waiting for the cheerleader to reply. Her phone beeped at her angrily after a minute.

_**becuz i dont want 2 see them. u r the only person i can stand 2 b around rite now.**_

Elle rolled her eyes and groaned again. _What is this girl doing to me?_ Grumbling, she quickly punched in her reply.

_**Ugh, fine fine. Are you going to feed me?**_

She flopped back against her seat, defeated. She shook her head when she heard her phone beep again.

_**lol yes i will feed u.**_

Sighing again, Elle wrote out her last text.

_**Alright. I will see you at 6.**_

She set her phone down before laying her head back against the headrest. Her eyes rolled up to the heavens. _What have I gotten myself into?_

[later that night]

Elle stared at the doorbell, having a mental debate about whether or not she should push it. _I mean, isn't this pushing the line just a little bit? I already messed up by letting Claire see me… twice… and now I'm going to just stroll right through her front door?_

She kept going back and forth over the situation for the rest of the afternoon. _What if daddy found out? Or worse, what if Noah Bennet found out? There would be hell to pay._

On the other side though, she was getting close to Claire… _Yes, close isn't exactly a good thing in this situation since I'm supposed to be invisible, but at least this way I will have a better chance at discovering Claire's ability. _

Elle grimaced at the thought.

A part of her, the truly selfish part of her, really wanted this… to hang out with the younger blonde just for fun.

But she was an agent… and she had a job to do.

So, no matter how much "fun" they had that night, her loyalties lied with daddy. She would not let him down. She had already let him down enough.

Making up her mind, she quickly reached up, pushed the doorbell and waited. She took the opportunity to glance back at the nearly deserted street behind her before she heard padded feet walking up to the door; she turned around just as it swung open.

And Elle completely forgot about her newfound resolve.

Claire leaned against the doorframe with some tiny pink athletic shorts, a white tank top, and a brilliant smile. Her hair, which must have been recently cleaned, fell down her shoulders in soft waves leading Elle's eyes to her smooth expanse of skin. Her outfit left little to the imagination and showed off her toned muscles fantastically.

She felt her mouth go dry.

"Oh Elle," Claire said, breaking into her thoughts. Elle's eyes snapped back up to the cheerleaders. The shorter girl tsk'd softly.

_What? What'd I do?_

"Is that what you wear to a slumber party?" Claire asked, glancing pointedly at Elle's outfit before opening the door wider for her to come in.

Elle looked at her oddly. "What?" she asked, looking down at her best business suit as she walked in. "What's wrong with this?"

Claire chuckled. "You're supposed to wear _comfortable_ clothes," she said, shutting the door behind them.

Elle felt her brow furrow. "These _are_ comfortable clothes, munchkin," she shot back.

Claire rolled her eyes at the name but decided not to argue, "Did you bring some pajamas?" She asked instead.

Elle gestured to the overnight bag she carried in her hand.

Claire shook her head softly. "The bathroom is the first door on the right," she gestured down the hallway, "Go change and _then_ we'll discuss supper." With that, the cheerleader turned and walked into the kitchen, ending the discussion.

_Little brat_, Elle thought as she made her way to the bathroom.

[some time later]  
**CPOV**

"What kind of accent is that anyway?" Elle asked with her eyes still glued to the t.v. Claire chuckled at the sight. Elle had been sitting forward that way the whole night, completely absorbed in the movie.

Claire shoveled some more popcorn in her mouth. "I think they said she's from Russia," she responded, turning her gaze back to the movie.

"Hmm," Elle started, but by now Claire knew she wasn't finished. Elle sat there for a moment longer while Claire counted down the seconds. _3… 2… 1…_ "I thought Ester was a Spanish name," Elle finished and Claire shook her head, giggling softly.

Elle hadn't shut up at all during the entire movie. Just in the first five minutes Elle had already asked the questions "What's wrong with her?", "Who's he?", "Why is she crying?", and "Where are they going?" Claire had almost suffered whiplash from the bombardment of questions. It irritated her at first, but after an hour she had come to expect it. Every thirty seconds or so, Elle was bound to come up with another question.

Claire leaned back against her headboard and turned her head to the side, deciding to watch Elle rather than the t.v. Hell if she knew what was going on anyway. She had stopped so many times to explain something that she eventually got lost. She wasn't sure _what _was happening now. _Besides,_ she thought, _watching Elle's facial expressions is a whole lot more entertaining._

Claire was glad she managed to convince Elle to change clothes earlier. The way the older blonde was sitting up, staring so intently at the screen, Claire was sure that suit would have become a nuisance after a while. _That's not to say she didn't look good in it, though_, Claire thought idly. She quickly shook her head and sighed, facing forward again. She had been having a lot of thoughts like that recently. She wasn't really sure where they were coming from.

She thought back to when Elle first arrived at her house. Claire had been anxious about the older woman coming over. She had cleaned her room and showered… again… which was ridiculous since they weren't going anywhere. It was just Elle. But still… whenever the blonde goddess was around, Claire felt the need to look her best. Elle looked amazing without even trying, so Claire at least had to put up _some_ effort.

Of course, when Claire had opened her front door, all of her thoughts were confirmed. The sun was setting behind the neighborhood, casting a glow to Elle's already brilliant hair and making her electric blue eyes even bluer. And then there was that suit. Claire had gulped softly when she saw it. She seriously doubted accountants and bank clerks could pull that look off, but Elle made it look good.

_God, she's beautiful_, Claire had thought.

She had dropped her eyes, taking all of her in. She didn't think Elle had grown any in the past eight years; she was still right at 5'1. But she had filled out a little, and that suit hugged her in all the right places. Claire quickly ripped her eyes away. As enjoyable as it was, it simply wouldn't do. Though Claire really wasn't one to complain when Elle wore those heels, it was a slumber party after all. So, Claire made her change.

When Elle stepped out of the bathroom later, Claire had snorted at the sight. She was wearing gray and white plaid pajama pants with a small, faded blue t-shirt that fit her perfectly. And, to top it all off, she had on some Tweety Bird house shoes. Now _that_ was her Elle. She had even pulled her hair back, leaving her spiky bangs to fall in her eyes.

Even dressed like that, though, Elle was a sight to behold.

They decided to order pizza for dinner, which was good considering Claire wasn't much of a cook. Once the pizza arrived, they took it upstairs to start the movie they had decided on: Orphan. Neither of them had seen it, and stupid Claire had suggested a horror film, so that's what they watched. The first half wasn't too scary, but they were slowly starting to see how messed up Ester really was.

"God, that girl's a freak," Elle said, mimicking her thoughts. At the moment, Ester was winding her arm in a vice grip in the father's work shop. She kept winding the handle until the grip broke her arm. Claire shuddered and Elle made some disgusted noise.

"Why did she _do_ that?" the electric blonde asked, holding the disgusted look on her face.

Claire had her hand covering her mouth, "I don't know. She's probably going to blame it on the mother."

Elle paused, "But how-"

"_Shh,"_ Claire cut her off before she could finish. They both watched on as Ester started crying for her father. When he came in, the troubled young girl showed him her arm where the mother had grabbed her earlier.

"_Ohhhh_," Elle said, apprehension dawning on her features.

Claire snorted.

They continued to watch the movie, mostly in silence but still with the occasional question from Elle. As it got closer to the end, Claire had begun to sit forward as well. The little orphan girl was really starting to freak her out. Though she had laughed at Elle's antics earlier, Claire found herself scooting closer and closer to the older blonde whenever something scary happened.

_Damn, why did I suggest a scary movie?_

She shoved some more popcorn in her mouth and took a second to glance at Elle. They were sitting really close now with their shoulders and legs brushing together. Claire could see Elle's wide eyes dart back and forth across the screen, catching every movement. Her mouth even hung slightly open as she watched with growing anticipation. Claire smiled at the sight.

She turned back to the screen, biting back her laughter, just as Ester jumped out of the darkness.

Claire screamed and immediately threw herself against Elle; throwing her arms around the older girl while burying her face in her shoulder. She refused to look back at the t.v. after that. She tried to listen to what was going on, hoping the scary part was almost over, but she was distracted… by Elle's shaking form. Claire froze and stopped paying attention to the movie as she focused solely on the shaking frame she held in her arms. _It almost feels like she's…_

Claire jerked her head up with glaring eyes as she watched Elle shake with laughter. Claire immediately released her and slapped her shoulder, "ELLE!"

That just made her howl even more.

Claire huffed, "It's not funny!"

Elle waved her hand frantically as she tried to control herself, "No no no, you're right, you're right." The electric blonde took in a deep, shaky breath and let it out, trying to compose herself, "That's not funny."

Claire continued to watch her with an indignant expression. Elle returned her gaze to the t.v. and seemed to be watching it with serious eyes… before she threw her arms dramatically up in the air. "Ahhhhhh!" she gave a high pitched squeal as she fell over, off the bed and onto the floor where she resumed her obnoxious howling at Claire's expense.

Claire angrily grabbed the remote control and paused the movie while she grabbed a pillow with her free hand. Not wasting a second, she dove off the bed and onto Elle's shaking form where she proceeded to smack the older girl with her pillow over and over again. Elle only laughed harder.

Claire growled at her, "It's not funny!"

"I'm sorry!" Elle gasped out as she continued to laugh hysterically, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Claire grumbled and tossed the pillow to the side. "I'll give you something to be sorry about," she said menacingly as she began to tickle the girl on the floor.

Elle cracked up, "No! No no no!" She tried to grab Claire's hands but the younger blonde wasn't giving up that easily. She dug her fingers into Elle's sides and giggled as the girl squirmed beneath her, completely helpless.

"Stooop stop stop!" Elle pleaded as her eyes began to water and her face turned red. Claire just laughed with her.

Seeing that Claire wasn't going to give up anytime soon, Elle tried out a new strategy. She quickly tricked her knee out, pushing Claire's legs out from under her which caused the smaller blonde to fall right on top of Elle. They both let out a_ 'whoosh'_ of breath as the air got knocked out of them.

"_Uggggh_," Elle groaned as she feebly attempted to push Claire off, "So… _heeeavy_…"

Claire gasped in shock and immediately kicked Elle as the older blonde burst into another fit of giggles. Claire struggled to push herself up far enough to look down into the giggling woman's face, "You never learn, do you?"

Elle just continued to chuckle.

Claire sighed, surprised that she could actually feel the vibrations of the electric blonde's chest against her own… but then she suddenly took note of _just how close_ they were. Feeling her breath catch in her throat, she quickly locked her eyes with Elle's… and they both froze mid-struggle.

Elle's smile slid off her face as she blinked slowly.

_Damn_, Claire thought, suddenly finding herself short of breath.

Their arms were still wrapped around each other in their previous wrestling pose. And as for their legs… Claire gulped. Their legs were tightly entwined together which left their chests and abdomens pressed flush up against each other. She could actually _feel_ each shallow breath Elle took in, pressing against her chest as if it were her own. Claire, feeling her heart rate pick up its' pace, briefly wondered if Elle could feel her, too. But she forgot about all of that when she stared into those eyes...

_Her eyes are so mesmerizing…_ Claire felt herself getting lost in their electric hue as they stared deeply right back into her own. She unconsciously began to lean in closer, trying to pick out every shade of blue in those eyes. She could almost feel Elle's ragged breathing against her lips…

_Just a little closer…_

_**Raaah-raaah-ra-ra-raa, romaaa-roma-maa, Ga-ga ooo la-la…**_

Claire froze an inch away from Elle's face. They stared at each other wide eyed as they were suddenly broken from their trance.

"What is that?" Elle whispered softly after a moment, her breath tickling Claire's face.

Claire tried to remember how to breathe as she racked her brain for an answer. She thought for a moment. "It's my phone," she suddenly realized.

Elle quirked an eyebrow as the mirth from earlier slowly slipped back into her expression; the corners of her mouth starting to twitch into the beginnings of a smile. "_That's_ your ring tone?" she asked, her voice still soft.

Claire rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Shut up," she said, aggravated, as she braced her hands against Elle's stomach and used it to push herself up.

"_Oof!"_ Elle protested as her breath left her. Claire ignored it and swiftly snatched up her phone, not looking at the screen.

"Hello?" she said, somewhat breathless.

"Claire? Oh good, you're still up," Claire's stomach dropped at her father's voice.

"Dad, _hey_," she said, giving Elle a pointed look. Elle looked up at her worriedly as she slowly pushed herself back up on her feet. "What's up?" Claire asked, turning back around and walking to the other side of the room.

"Oh, I was just calling to let you know we're back at the hotel," he started, "Mr. Muggles got another ribbon."

"Oh…" Claire said. "That's good," she added, trying to muster up some enthusiasm.

"Yeah, your mother is really proud," he said. Claire could hear her mother cooing Mr. Muggles in the background. "So… did you invite Jackie over? Or did you two go out?" her father asked, changing the subject.

"Oh umm…" _Shit._ "I just decided to stay in and watch some movies," she started, swallowing hard, "I wasn't really up for seeing anyone tonight." She bit her lip and turned back around to glance at Elle. The older blonde just shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the next.

"I see," Noah said. He sounded concerned, but fortunately for her he didn't question her about it.

She quickly jumped to the next subject, "So, um… what time will y'all be back tomorrow?"

"Well, with the drive I suppose we should be home by noon," he told her.

"Okay, that's good," she said, quickly deciding to fake a yawn, "Well, Dad, I think I'm gonna hit the sack. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Alright, Claire Bear," he chuckled, "I love you."

"I love you, too," Claire replied.

"Good night, sweetie," he finished.

"Good night, Dad," she responded before hanging up. She sighed and stared at the phone in her hand.

"He was just checking up on you then?" Elle asked quietly after a moment of silence.

Claire nodded absently before finally looking up to meet her gaze. She chewed on her lip for a moment before gesturing towards the paused movie. "You know, I don't think we're going to finish this tonight," she decided, "Let's just… get ready for bed, okay?"

Elle watched her for a silent moment before nodding her head in agreement. She went to go grab something out of her bag. "Just let me go brush my teeth," she said quietly before dashing out of the room.

Claire stared after her, absently sitting down on the edge of her bed with the phone still in her hand.

_I almost kissed her_, Claire thought, not fully believing it herself. _I almost kissed Elle Bishop_.

She swallowed hard and reached up to rub the back of her neck. _What does this mean?_ She wondered. _Am I gay? …Or is it just Elle?_ She stared off into space. _And how does Elle feel? I mean, she didn't try to pull away… but, at the same time, she was probably too shocked to do anything…_

Claire felt her head start to throb from all the questions. She reached up and rubbed her forehead gingerly just as she heard Elle reenter the room. Claire took opportunity to go brush her teeth quickly as she tried to reign in her thoughts.

When she returned to the room, she found Elle already in the bed, waiting patiently for Claire to turn off the light. Claire watched as Elle snuggled happily under the sheets, grinning from ear to ear… and completely oblivious to whatever Claire had been thinking earlier. Claire laughed at the sight.

_Of course Elle didn't feel anything_, she thought, shaking her head gently. _It's Elle for goodness' sake… _Claire sighed as she made her way over to the lamp. _She's so lost in her own world, I could walk in with nothing but lingerie on and she would just look at me and ask what happened to the rest of my clothes… _She shook her head again, feeling somewhat disappointed, but grateful that Elle didn't seem to notice the almost kiss from earlier.

Claire reached over to cut off the lamp before crawling into bed beside her. In the darkness, she heard the older blonde snuggle even farther under the sheets.

They both just laid there awkwardly for several long moments. The silence was suffocating. Claire was beginning to wonder if either of them would dare to speak when Elle finally cleared her throat.

"So umm…" she started, pausing for a moment as she tried to decide what she wanted to say, "Did you… tell your dad?"

Claire felt her eyebrows scrunch together in confusion, "Tell him what?"

"You know…" Elle started again. "About… _douche bag_?" she struggled to find a term for him.

Claire swallowed hard. _She's talking about Brody_, she realized. "I um…" Claire started before shaking her head quickly, "No, I haven't."

Elle was silent for a moment, "Are you going to?"

Again Claire found herself tongue tied. "I…" she began, "I'm not sure."

Elle didn't say anything after that, for which Claire was grateful. She felt the older blonde turn over after a minute, giving Claire her back.

"Good night, Claire," she heard the girl say softly.

Claire pulled the blankets up around her and stared into the darkness.

"Good night, Elle."

* * *

**A/N: So, what did y'all think? **

**I already know for the most part what I want to put in the next chapter, so there shouldn't be a long wait for it.**

Thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

**_****HarukaFairbanks: Yes yes yes, and thank yooou for all your help :) Your suggestions really helped me to figure the chapter out.  
Riana Kaiba, WGail: I'm glad y'all liked it :P thanks for all the support! And Riana, I may have them go to a carnival in one of the future chapters :) that's a cute idea.  
youknowdinges: Oh, don't worry about your reviews; I enjoy getting them. Thanks for reading!****_**

Chapter 7

* * *

**EPOV**

Elle awoke to the feeling of warm breath on her neck. Squinting her eyes open, she blinked a few times to clear her vision. _What is that?_ She wondered when she saw nothing. Finally blinking away the sleep from her eyes, she opened them wider and spotted a splash of blonde under her line of vision.

_Claire?_

Being careful not to move around too much, Elle noted they were _not_ in the same position they were in last night. When they went to sleep, they were each on the own respectful sides of the bed, but _now_… It seemed as if they drifted towards each other in their dreams. Elle could feel each soft breath Claire took in as her chest rose and then felt the breath disperse again softly across her throat. Elle shivered.

_How did we end up in this position?_

They were facing towards each other, Elle noted… Claire was curled up against her; her head tucked under Elle's chin. And Elle had her arms tightly wound around the young cheerleader, bringing the girl flush up against Elle's body…

_That must be why I'm so hot_, she realized.

She took a second to study the form in her arms; noting the subtle dips and curves of the cheerleader's back and waist… and the leg she had tangled in both of Elle's. Claire was very warm, she concluded, swallowing gently… _and soft_, her rebellious thoughts added. She squeezed her eyes shut and immediately chastised herself.

_Stop that!_

Feeling Elle tense suddenly, Claire started to shift around in her grasp; pushing her head up so that she could further bury her face in Elle's neck. Elle felt her heart jump as the girl's soft mouth and nose pressed against her skin. _What is she…_ Elle's thoughts were answered when she felt the girl take in a long, slow breath. Elle gulped. _Is she… sniffing me?_

Suddenly Claire tensed in her arms and froze her actions. _Now she's awake_, Elle thought, rolling her eyes. Ever so slowly, Claire pulled her head up to come face to face with the girl she'd been snuggling. Timid, sparkling green eyes met electric blue and they laid there, staring at each other.

_She's doing that thing again,_ Elle noted as the green eyes darted back and forth, trying to read something Elle couldn't see.

She swallowed softly.

_Say something, you idiot!_

Elle cleared her throat gently. "I'm uh not sure… what time it is," her voice cracked due to lack of use, "But it appears we slept in." She pointedly glanced at the sun streaming in through the window. Claire glanced over her shoulder and took note of the sunlight.

"Hmm," she said softly before turning forward again and reaching over Elle.

Elle gulped and tried to remember to breathe properly as the younger blonde stretched over her, bringing her body to lay flush on top of the company agent's. Elle felt her heart start beating erratically as she tried swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat. _First last night and now again this morning? Get a grip on yourself, Bishop._

Her mind flashed back to last night when she and Claire had ended up in a very similar position on the floor… _only she had been laying _between_ my legs, _she recalled… Elle quickly squeezed her eyes shut.

_No no… bad thoughts, _Elle scolded, _Calm yourself_.

Claire finally found what she was looking for and slowly retracted herself from Elle's grasp, lying back on the bed as she opened her phone. "Mmm," she studied the screen for a moment, "It's almost 10:30."

Elle let out a much needed breath as she tried to regain focus.

_10:30…_ _Fuck, that means Bennet is on his way here_, she realized with a start, _Grrrr_.

Swallowing gently, she turned to the blonde beside her who was still intently studying her phone.

"I should probably get going then," she stated softly.

Claire, snapping her eyes away from her phone, turned to Elle then with a smoldering look. _It's almost like she doesn't want me to go…_

Elle felt her resolve start to slip. She opened and closed her mouth several times in an attempt to speak before she remembered exactly _why_ she needed to leave.

She sighed regretfully.

"Your dad is probably on his way back now," Elle started, watching the cheerleader's eyes, "It wouldn't be good if he got back early and found us…" She let the rest of her sentence drop, not sure how she wanted to end it.

Claire's eyes unfocused on her as she stared off in the distance. "You're probably right," she said softly.

Elle nodded. Not wasting another moment, she hopped out of the bed and grabbed her bag. If she watched that face any longer, she'd forget her reasons for leaving… In fact, she'd probably just curl back up with the cheerleader and _insist_ on getting some more rest... And by "rest" she meant snuggling some more.

_Let me get out of here before I do something stupid_, she grumbled to herself as she headed to the bathroom.

**CPOV**

Claire stared absently at the toaster while she waited for her bread to turn nice and golden. Swallowing softly, she started to recall everything that had been going on in her life lately.

As much fun as she had with Elle last night, remembering that her dad was coming home swiftly brought her back to reality. _It was nice_… Claire thought, _to forget everything for a while_. But she couldn't hide from her problems forever.

She needed to tell her dad about Brody, she finally decided. As difficult as it would be, he needed to know. Claire felt a pit of dread settle in her stomach as she imagined how the conversation would go.

_How should I tell him?_ She wondered. _Quick, like a band aid? Or should I draw out the whole story… not sparing any detail? _

Well, aside from Elle saving the day, of course.

She couldn't let her father know that Elle had been there… As far as he knew, she hadn't seen Elle in eight years.

Claire sighed softly. And what was up with that? Claire had _also_ recently been plagued by thoughts of the company. Although, at the time, she had gone along with it, she didn't really understand why her father wanted to keep her away from the place… Or why he seemed so uncomfortable with her hanging out with Elle.

Maybe Elle knew.

Claire felt her heart skip. She took in a deep breath and let it out. _Maybe I can ask her about it later; maybe we can-_

A throat clearing softly behind her pulled her from her thoughts.

Claire turned to see Elle standing in the doorway of the kitchen, dressed in a blue, form-fitting business suit. _The blue really brings out her eyes_, she thought, smiling softly to herself. Elle returned the smile with a dazzling one of her own, and Claire relished in the warmth that seeped into her core and spread through every appendage.

_Maybe reality can wait a few more minutes_...

She made her way around the counter to the taller girl, still smiling at her softly. "I'm making toast if you want to stay for breakfast?" Claire stated, maybe a bit too hopeful.

She almost laughed at the conflicted expression on Elle's face. With her bag in hand, Claire knew Elle was ready to bolt, but when food came into the equation… Elle suddenly looked unsure of herself. Claire bit her lip, trying to keep from laughing as she waited for Elle to decide.

The older blonde finally let out a painful sigh, shaking her head gently. "I should go," she finally said, offering Claire a small smile.

Claire returned the smile, but it was strained… She wasn't ready to let the girl go. Elle had done so much for her…

She knew she needed to say something, but suddenly found it hard with the emotion welling in her chest. Claire bit her lip again before swallowing hard. "Thank you… for staying with me last night," she finally got out.

Elle offered her another bright smile, "I had fun."

Claire laughed softly, "Me too."

They stood there… smiling at one another for what seemed like forever. _I think I could spend every morning like this, _Claire thought absently. Though in the back of her mind there dwelt thoughts that threatened to swallow her whole… When Elle was standing there, looking at her in that way… Claire wasn't worried. She wasn't worried in the least. Because she _knew_… if she had Elle on her side… everything would be okay.

She wanted to tell Elle that. She wanted to tell Elle something… _anything_… that even _remotely _expressed how deeply she cared for the older woman… when Elle's face suddenly fell, taking on a very serious look.

Claire lost her smile.

She watched as Elle seemed to be fighting some inner battle before the girl finally spoke.

"You know, if you asked…" Elle started, "… I'd track down that sick pup _today_ and beat him within an inch of his life."

Claire let out a choked laugh as tears sprang into her eyes. Elle looked so serious and concerned in that moment that Claire could swear she felt her heart melt at the sight. She took in a shaky breath as she stared into the older girl's eyes, finding only sincerity and concern there. Elle meant what she said.

Before Claire could think twice about it, she stepped forward and pulled the taller girl into a warm embrace. It took Elle a second to return the hug, but Claire understood; Elle wasn't used to this kind of thing. The fact that the older blonde was trying, though, made Claire feel warmed to her toes.

When Claire finally released her several moments later, she planted a small kiss on Elle's cheek… which promptly turned red from the contact.

Claire smiled.

"So, we'll do this again sometime?" she asked.

Elle nodded sharply before giving her another smile. Claire's smile brightened.

"Okay," Claire gave the other girl another quick hug before seeing her out. "I'll text you sometime," she called across the yard.

Elle chuckled, "Okay." She turned to throw a wave back at the house, "See ya, pom pom."

Claire rolled her eyes at the nick name, but couldn't help smiling at the older girl as she took off in her car.

[later that afternoon]  
**EPOV**

Elle wringed her hands nervously as she walked down the hall to Bob Bishop's office. He had texted her about an hour earlier saying he needed to speak with her immediately. Although the wording didn't sound too friendly, there was no way he could know she spent the night in Claire Bennet's bed… right?

She let out a shuddering breath as she made it to the receptionist's desk. Trish glanced up at her warily, as per usual, but Elle ignored it. "Is my father in?" she asked timidly, "He asked to see me."

"He's on the phone," Trish replied tentatively, "But you can go on in, Ms. Bishop."

Elle nodded sharply before heading to the door. She took a second to compose herself, simply resting her hand on the door knob. _You don't know what he wants to talk to you about_, she lectured herself, _It could be nothing. So, stay calm until you figure out what all he knows_. After taking in a few relaxing breaths, she finally let herself in.

Bob Bishop was pacing angrily behind his desk with the phone attached to his ear.

_This doesn't look too promising_, she gulped.

Deciding not to get on his bad side she crept over to one of the chairs and sat down quietly.

"If you did your job _correctly_, we wouldn't be having this problem," he nearly shouted into the phone. Another voice sounded on the other end, but it wasn't loud enough for Elle to hear. "He's a cop, _Bennet_, asking questions is his job," Elle tensed when she realized her father was talking to Noah Bennet. Her daddy glanced over at the movement and seemed surprised to see his daughter sitting there.

He let out an exasperated breath.

"I have to go," he said abruptly. "Come in as soon as you can and we'll go over this," he finished before slamming the phone back down on the receiver. Elle jumped slightly at the noise.

Her daddy sighed as he moved to sit down; pushing the chair back and buttoning his jacket back up before sitting down professionally in front of his agent. Elle gulped again.

"So, what's your report, Agent Bishop?" he asked, turning his attention to some papers on his desk.

Elle held her breath, not sure what to say. "My what?"

Bob Bishop looked up at her sharply. "On Claire Bennet," he started, "Have you seen anything out of the ordinary?"

Elle stifled her sigh of relief. _Whew_. "Um…" she thought quickly, "I'm afraid I haven't seen anything yet, but I've been right on top of her." _And you have _no idea _how true that statement is_, her mind added softly.

Bob Bishop nodded before turning back to his papers. "Alright," he started. "But if you see anything, and I do mean _anything_…" he accentuated his point by meeting Elle's gaze again for a long moment, "You tell me_ immediately_."

Elle nodded quickly while she swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Yes, Daddy."

**CPOV**

Claire paced silently up and down the hallway while she waited for her father to get off the phone. She repeated her speech over and over again in her head. Well… it wasn't really a speech; it was more like just a few words. She just had to find the courage to get the words out there and hope for the best.

Her heart ached as she thought about the conversation to come.

_This is going to hurt him so much_, she thought. Not just the fact that she had kept it from him, but the fact that it had happened in the first place. Her father was so… overprotective of her. He did his best to make sure she was _always_ happy, and she just _knew…_ that when he learned about this… Claire shook her head at the thought.

She heard her dad slam the phone down as he stormed out of his office.

She gulped.

"Um, Dad?" she started as he began to walk past her without a glance.

He stopped and seemed to notice she was standing there for the first time. "Oh, Claire," he said surprised. "I'm sorry, what is it, sweetie?"

Claire opened and shut her mouth a few times. "I was umm…" she managed to get out, "I was hoping…" She stopped and took in a shaky breath. "Can we… talk?"

Noah's eyes filled with remorse. "Oh honey, I was just on my way to the factory," he stated, "Can it wait?"

Claire swallowed hard. "Oh um… yeah," she said, offering him a tight smile, "Sure."

"Are you positive?" her dad asked full of concern.

She gave him a real smile. "Yes, Dad, I'm sure."

He returned the smile. "Alright kiddo," he leaned in to kiss her forehead, "I'll be back late tonight." He headed towards the front door, "Tell your mom not to wait up."

Claire nodded solemnly, slowly losing her smile as her father walked out the door.

_Well… he took that well_, Claire grumbled to herself as she headed back up to her room.

* * *

**A/N: And I'm afraid that's it for this chapter. It's my shortest chapter yet. More EClaire moments soon!**


	8. Chapter 8

**_****w00t w00t, got some more readers :) thanks to everyone for their reviews. I'm sorry this chapter took a few days, but I've already started working on chapter 9 so at least you won't have to wait too long for it. :D enjoy!****_**

Chapter 8

* * *

**CPOV**

"He _WHAT?"_

Claire grimaced at the volume her friend, Zach, had decided to use.

She looked around and waved awkwardly to the few students that stopped and stared.

When they finally moved on, Claire turned to Zach with a sharp gaze. "Do you think you could keep your _voice_ down?" she hissed at him.

"I'm sorry, but you just told me that Brody Mitchum tried to _rape_ you," he hissed back at her.

Claire grimaced again and sat back to survey the lunch crowd. She had decided to sit with Zach today because she needed someone to talk to. Claire had _barely_ managed to fall asleep the night before with all the thoughts that plagued her mind; first of Brody, then the company, her father, and, of course, Elle.

She shook the last thought away. _Don't need to jump ahead of myself_, she thought.

"How did you get away from him?" Zach asked, scooting closer to her.

_And, of course, he always knows how to ask the perfect question_, she inwardly groaned. She wasn't really sure if she should bring Elle up just yet. Granted, Zach wasn't her father and she knew whatever she told him would stay a secret… But she was nervous. Whatever she was feeling for the older blonde still baffled and confused her… She wasn't sure she was ready to talk about her possible female crush just yet.

She sighed.

"Well…" she started, "I couldn't very well fight him off myself, obviously. I mean, I _tried_ to… but he was a hell of a lot stronger." She looked over to see his expression.

Zach just raised his eyebrows, silently asking her to continue.

Claire swallowed, "Anyway, um…" she looked away as she took a quick sip of her drink. "An old friend of mine came along and kind of saved the day," she mumbled, suddenly taking up a fascination with the contents of the juice in her hand.

Zach didn't say anything for a moment. "An old friend?" there was a curious tone to his voice, "What _old friend_? All of your _old friends_ go to this school."

_Damn him._

She sighed.

"You know the company my dad works for?" she started after a moment. When Zach nodded she continued, "Well, his boss's daughter and I used to, um… hang out when we were younger." She almost said "play together" but she highly doubted Elle throwing things at her head constituted as "playing together".

"Oh yeah?" he started, "You never told me that." Claire wasn't looking at him, but she detected a slight playfulness to his tone.

"Yeah well…" hoping to change the subject, "Speaking of the company, that's sort of another thing I wanted to talk to you about." She finally met Zach's gaze again to see him waiting expectantly.

"The company that my dad works for…" Claire started, "I've always sort of had questions about it, but lately I've really started to notice how odd it is. I mean, it's a paper factory…" She looked him right in the eye to add emphasis to what she was saying, "A _paper factory,_ Zach. And yet they keep calling my dad in at random hours. Like last night for example… I had _finally_ worked up the courage to tell him about what happened with Brody, but he had to leave on another _'paper emergency'_." She paused as Zach chuckled at the impersonation of her dad then continued. "It was a _Sunday_… and he had _just _gotten home from a trip… It's _paper_ for goodness sake!" Zach started to laugh again. "What kind of _paper _emergency can't wait until a business day?" she said, exasperated. "_And_ they keep sending him on these trips all _over of the country_. I mean, _really?_" she asked, waving her hands about incredulously, "_Who_ cares about paper that much?"

Zach was bent over sideways trying to control his laughter, "Apparently your dad does."

Claire rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I know."

Zach coughed softly as he finally got a reign on his chuckles. Still smiling softly he asked, "So, what about this Elle girl?"

Claire froze.

"What about her?" she asked, trying to keep her tone nonchalant.

Zach bumped his eyebrows up again. "Well, can't you ask her about the company?"

Claire ducked her chin down, grumbling softly as she inspected her nails. "I've thought about it," she muttered.

"_And?"_ he prodded impatiently, "Why haven't you?"

Claire shrugged.

"Wow," was all he said.

Her head shot up. "Wow what?" she asked suspiciously.

He was chuckling softly under his breath. "Nothing nothing," he started, shaking his head, "But if you think something fishy is going on at where they work… She might be the person to tell you."

Claire nodded, looking away again.

"So um…" Zach started again. "How do they get along?"

Claire scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion. "How does _who_ get along?"

Zach bit his lip like he was trying to hold back a smile. "Elle and your father," he said.

Claire studied him for a moment, noting the small glint in his eye. _Is he doing this on purpose?_ Claire grumbled softly to herself.

"Well _actually_… I don't know," at Zach's confused look, she elaborated, "My father is under the impression that Elle and I haven't seen each other in eight years, so… Elle isn't really a topic of discussion at our house."

Zach stared at her wide eyed. "So… he doesn't _know_ you've run into your old bosom buddy?" he started slowly. Claire narrowed her eyes at the name, but nodded gently.

"And… I'm guessing you're not planning on telling him?" he continued.

Claire sighed.

It was pointless to try to keep anything from him.

"No, I don't. But it's all because of that _stupid_ paper factory," Zach raised his eyebrows again and waited. Claire groaned in defeat. "Elle and I weren't _bosom buddies_… in fact we were far from it. She was a bully, and… I was a small, defenseless girl who was stuck there every day after school." Zach nodded in understanding but motioned for her to continue. "Anyway, a day came when Dad didn't want me hanging out at the company anymore… I thought at first it was because of Elle, but later realized it was the whole company he had a problem with."

"So, why does he stay there?" Zach cut in.

"I don't know," Claire said, exasperated.

Zach nodded, thinking to himself for a moment. Finally he returned his gaze to Claire, "Why did you think it was because of Elle?"

Claire's heart jumped at the sound of the older blonde's name, but she quickly squashed the emotion welling within her. Swallowing gently, she stared off into nowhere, "I don't know, we sort of… bonded the last week I was there… and... I don't think my father was too happy about it."

Zach remained quiet for a moment before gently prodding again, "Bonded how?"

Claire let out a soft sigh as she thought back eight years ago. "Turns out Elle wasn't quite the bully I thought she was," Claire finally gave in. Keeping her voice soft, she continued as she let her thoughts wander freely over the older blonde, "Even now… She can be so emotionally distant at times, but..." Claire chewed on her lip while she tried to put her thoughts into words, "I know that she cares about me in her own way… You know?"

She turned back to look at Zach then and immediately felt a blush creep onto her cheeks when she met his eyes; she hadn't meant to say all _that. _Zach was staring at her with a small, knowing smile and that same glint in his eye from before.

"_What?_" she snapped as she quickly rubbed at her neck in hopes to erase the redness.

He shook his head softly, still grinning at her. "Nothing," was all he said.

Claire grumbled to herself and started to give him a piece of her mind when the bell interrupted her. Lunch was over. Sighing, she grabbed her stuff and went to throw her leftovers away. Zach followed behind her quietly. When they reached her locker, he leaned against the wall and waited while she gathered her books.

"So, what are you gonna do about Brody?" he finally asked.

"What _can _I do?" she said, thinking out loud while she shoved some books into her backpack, "Even if I were to take this to the police, I don't have a scratch on me."

"But you know what happened… what _almost _happened," he paused. "What _could_ have happened," he added softly. Claire swallowed hard, keeping her eyes locked on her books. "And _he_ knows what happened… " Zach continued, "If worse comes to worse, you could always ask Elle to testify against him."

"No, I can't do that," she responded quickly.

"Why not?" Zach asked incredulously.

"Be_cause_," Claire started, jerking her zipper back up to close her book bag, "My dad's not supposed to know we've run into each other again, remember?"

Zach rolled his eyes, "Right right… Maybe you and your girlfriend should think about coming out of the closet."

Claire gasped and turned to him in shock. _What did he…? How…? _"She is _not_ my-"

"Hey _Claire_," a voice cut her off.

Claire turned around quickly to see Jackie and Brody heading towards her. She gulped audibly and felt Zach tense beside her.

"What happened at the bonfire the other night?" Jackie continued, "One minute you were there and the next… _Poof_."

Claire looked between the both of them rapidly; Jackie seemed oblivious but Brody kept shifting from one foot to the next uncomfortably. _Yeah, that's right, asshole_, Claire thought vehemently. She cleared her throat and put on her best actress face.

Plastering on a smile, she laughed and responded. "I was hoping you could tell me," she started, "I had _way_ too much to drink."

Brody gulped and looked around nervously. "I gotta go to the bathroom," he said in a rush before darting off, leaving the other three to stare after him.

"He must have a bladder the size of a pea; he just went," Jackie said, but Claire wasn't paying attention. She was caught off guard when she found a short, shy brunette staring directly at her.

_Lori Trammel? _

She squinted her eyes at the girl off in the distance; she was definitely staring at Claire alright.

"Anyway, see you later," Jackie called and left without waiting for a response. Claire rolled her eyes at her former best friend and turned back to her locker. Her thoughts drifted back to Lori.

Claire didn't really know a lot about the soft spoken girl. They shared a few classes together, but she was just a quiet bookworm for all Claire knew; kept to herself most of the time. She didn't think they'd ever even spoken to each other before.

She was pulled away from her thoughts by a tap on the shoulder. Zach was still standing with her.

"So, I'll text you later?" he asked.

"Yeah," she mumbled as he trotted off. "Right," she finished, more to herself as she turned to close her locker door.

When she rounded the corner later to head to class she bumped into Lori Trammel herself.

"Oh, hi, sorry," Claire offered the girl a small smile and started to walk around her.

"I saw you go off with Brody Mitchum the other night at the bonfire," Lori called softly.

Claire turned slowly back around and studied her. The other girl seemed really small in that moment. "So?" Claire asked.

Lori studied her eyes intently. "_So_, what happened?" she asked.

_Does she have some psycho stalker crush on the guy or what?_

Ready to end the conversation and high tail it to class, Claire simply shrugged while fiddling with her pack strap, "Nothing. Nothing happened."

Lori nodded and went to stand next to Claire. "I went off with Brody Mitchum once," she started before looking up to meet Claire's gaze again, "_'Nothing'_ happened to me, too." Lori then turned to look in front of them. Claire followed her gaze to find Brody already flirting with some other girl, reaching out to brush his hands across her hips every so often though she playfully pushed him away.

Claire swallowed hard.

_It wasn't just me._

[some time later]

Claire sat in her history class, gnawing absently at her pencil eraser. A gross habit, she knew, but she always did it when she was deep in thought.

_Brody has raped other girls_.

Though Claire had tried to brush her almost rape attempt off to make it seem like nothing, she'd never stopped to consider that he had done it before… and that he would, more than likely, do it again.

She bit down on her eraser hard.

She had to do something… This couldn't continue.

If no one else would step up, she'd have to do something about it herself.

[later that night]  
**EPOV**

Elle traced her fingertips over the grooves of the steering wheel while she waited for the cheerleader to come out.

The meeting with her father the day before really shook her up. She knew that she was an agent and that she had a job to do…

Claire was that job.

Claire was the target.

She had to hunt down and destroy Claire's only attempt at normalcy because her daddy demanded it.

Elle clamped her jaws tightly shut.

_I can't let myself get attached to her… I can't care about her… I can't-_

_Hot DAMN, how long does this cheerleading practice stuff take?_

Elle had been sitting there for what felt like hours. It was time for supper… and she knew that because her stomach had been having a full conversation with her for the past hour. She grumbled softly to herself.

Right then she saw the cheerleaders starting to file out of the locker room.

_Ugh, finally_.

Elle waited patiently for her specific cheerleader… She was the last one out, of course. _And_… she wasn't heading home?

Elle squinted at the younger blonde across the lot. Claire stood there, leaning against the wall with a blank stare.

_She's waiting on someone_, Elle decided, _But who? …All her pom pom waver friends have already left._

And that's when the football team came out. Elle narrowed her eyes when one jock strap in particular approached the lone cheerleader.

Elle immediately recognized him as Jody... _Brody, whatever._

_What the hell does he think he's doing?_ Elle put her hand on the door and prepared to jump out and shock the little dipshit. But she froze when she saw the cheerleader smiling… and… _flirting…_ with him?

_What the hell is SHE doing?_ Elle unconsciously gripped the door handle as she fumed. _Doesn't she remember what that little shit tried to do to her?_

The two started walking towards his car.

_Oh, it's on, _she thought before revving up her engine.

**CPOV**

He was looking at her warily, cautiously letting his eyes slide over her as he tried to decide what to do. After a moment he walked towards her.

"What are you doing here so late?" he asked void of any emotion.

"Making banners for spirit week," she said simply. She put a bit of a seductive pout in her voice, "Jackie was going to give me a ride home, but I guess she left without me." Ever so slightly she tilted her head to the side and looked up at him through her eyelashes. "Can I get a lift?" she finally asked, offering him the brightest smile she could muster.

He looked unsure. "Yeah… I guess," there was a note of confusion in his voice.

"Thanks," she drew out, smiling at him coyly as she walked closer. "Hey, you drive a stick shift, right?" He simply raised his eyebrows at her. She took that as a yes. Smiling at him again, she asked, "Can I drive?"

He merely tightened his lips and gestured towards his car, giving her the affirmative. They walked over and got in before heading out on the street.

Claire sped the car down the darkened street as she kept her eyes focused on the road. Losing her teasing tone from earlier, she blatantly asked, "Don't you think it's a little weird that neither one of us remembers what happened the night of the bonfire?"

He swallowed nervously. "Must have been some night," was all he said.

"Yeah, must have," she agreed with a monotone voice.

She kicked the car up another gear as she ran through a red light.

Brody started to shift around uncomfortably in his seat. "Slow down, that was a red light," he said.

"Whoops," she deadpanned.

She pushed the car forward into yet another gear. The street lights began to blur together as they sped past building after building.

He watched her suspiciously. "You know how to drive a stick shift, don't you?" he asked accusingly.

She ground her teeth together. "There's a lot of _things_ that I know," she said, finally letting her pent up anger seep into her voice. "Like what you did to me."

"What did I do to _you_?" he asked before turning away from her, "I knew it; I _knew_ this would happen." He turned to stare at her again, "_You_ get drunk. _You_ come onto me, and it's _my_ fault?"

"You're a liar-"

"You can't rape the willing, Claire" he cut in with a laugh, and she suddenly remembered how he had laughed at her that night. "You wanted it as bad as I did," he finished the line from her nightmares.

She shook the images away. "Did I want it as bad as Lori Trammel?" she shot back.

"Lori Trammel?" he asked with a note of surprise. "Lori Trammel is a slut."

Claire ground her teeth together again as she watched the dashed lines on the street flash by faster and faster. "Is that what you're going to say about me?"

"I already do," he said with a sleezy smile.

Claire swallowed hard. "You're just gonna keep at it, aren't you?"

"You should let it go, Claire," he stated, smiling smugly as he leaned back in his seat. "There's nothing you can do about it."

She froze, taking her focus off the road as she turned to glance at him; the smug smile still gleaming on his face. _He's never gonna stop_, she decided. Slowly turning her gaze back to the road, she felt an unusual calm settle over her.

She smirked softly as she spotted the brick wall up ahead.

Claire pressed the pedal to the floorboard as she shifted gears again.

"I can do this."

**EPOV**

"What the _fuck_ are you doing?" Elle screamed in her empty car.

Elle was attempting to trail after the car and open her phone at the same time. Once Claire ran a red light and continued to drive full speed ahead, Elle knew something was up. She kept one eye on the car and one eye on her phone as she desperately looked for Claire's number.

"There you are," she muttered, highlighting Claire's number before hitting "Send". She held the phone up to her ear while pushing her car to go faster. _Damn, how fast are we goin'?_ she wondered, taking note of the street lamps as they blurred past them. Glancing at the dash, she read her speedometer. _80 in a 35 speed zone?_ … _Eh, I've done worse._

_**Hey guys, this is Claire. Leave me a message and I'll get back to you!**_

"Shit," she muttered under her breath. Now of all times she would have her phone off.

Elle watched wide eyed as the car in front of her suddenly shot forward, going faster than ever. "What is she…" Elle felt her heart stop when she realized, too late, what they were heading towards. She slammed on her own breaks as she watched the other car ram head first into a solid, brick wall.

"CLAIRE!" Elle screamed frantically, throwing her car in park and jumping out with the phone in hand. She dialed 911.

"_Hello_, yes, I need an ambulance at the corner of West Main and Gilmore, there's been an accident. Two teenagers crashed into a building. Please hurry!" she yelled into the phone before hanging it up. She ran to the driver side door and yanked on it. It didn't budge. Quickly grabbing the handle with both hands she used all her weight and strength to drag the door open; it yielded with a nail biting screech.

"Ugh," she groaned as she pushed the door out of the way.

Taking a step forward, she studied the scene…

...

Her phone fell out of her hand and crashed onto the pavement.

There laid Claire… slumped back in her seat with multiple cuts and bruises, but the worst one… the fatal wound… was the piece of windshield jutting out from Claire's exposed neck, nearly cutting it in half.

_Wha.._. _She…_

Elle held her hand in front of her mouth as the muscles in her neck tensed, attempting to scream, and her stomach churned violently.

She couldn't breathe… her heart pounded painfully in her chest.

"…Claire?" she didn't recognize the small voice that escaped from her lips.

Not knowing how it happened, she suddenly found herself kneeling next to the bleeding girl on the pavement… She must have pulled Claire from the wreckage on autopilot and laid her down to inspect her closer.

Examining the shard of glass sticking out of the girl's throat, Elle quickly reached down and pulled it out, slashing the palm of her hand in the process. She bit back against the pain as she watched the neck wound.

Nothing.

Elle's vision blurred suddenly as tears started to fall from her eyes. Swallowing hard, she reached forward with her good hand and patted the lifeless form on the cheek.

"Claire?" the wobbly voice sounded again. When she received no response, Elle slowly brushed the cheerleader's bloodied hair off her forehead.

Elle slowly started rocking back and forth on her knees while she played with the smaller blonde's hair.

"You were supposed to heal," she let out a choked laugh as more tears ran down her face, mixing with the blood.

She moved back then. Sitting down about a foot away, she hugged her knees to her chest and buried her face as she continued to rock back and forth.

She hummed softly to herself.

_This isn't real… this isn't happening. Claire's fine… she's still at cheerleading practice is all-_

A gasp broke her from her thoughts, and she jumped back as Claire Bennet shot up, gasping for air.

Elle stared wide eyed as the flesh of Claire's neck finished repairing itself; sealing the wound off completely, leaving only the stains of blood as evidence.

Claire looked around, taking in everything when her eyes fell on Elle, who was staring back at her with the same shocked expression.

_She just…_

"_Claire?"_

* * *

**A/N: Cliffhanger, mwaha. What did y'all think?**


	9. Chapter 9

_******Shortest chapter ever! w00t! Seriously though, sorry about the length. Most of this chapter is from the episode Hiros, so there's not a lot of new information here. I promise to make up for it in Chapter 10, though. Thanks for the reviews!******_

Chapter 9

* * *

**CPOV**

"Claire?"

There was a soft voice calling to her from the darkness. She couldn't see anything, but she recognized it; they sounded so familiar. She racked her brain for an answer. _Who is that?_ Attempting to open her eyes and finding that she couldn't, she was suddenly distracted by the intense pain.

_Ugh, what happened?_

She tried to move, she tried to open her eyes... she tried to _breathe_ even, but she couldn't do anything… but lay there and suffer.

There was a touch on her cheek.

"Claire?" the voice sounded again.

They also sounded in pain. Were they hurt, too? She shivered at the sensation of someone running their fingers through her hair… and suddenly the pain wasn't so unbearable anymore.

Literally.

As if on cue, her wounds became numb to her, dulling the pain. She knew it had to be this stranger's doing.

_Thank you, mysterious angel_.

"You were supposed to heal," the voice continued.

_What?... Heal? What is she talking about?_

That's when she remembered.

Brody. The almost rape. The car. The building. The crash.

Claire had driven Brody's car into a wall to teach him a lesson, of course _knowing_ that she would walk away from it unscathed.

_Heal. That's what I'm doing; I'm healing._

So, was her angel a dream? Before she could find an answer, her throat suddenly opened up, allowing her breath again… which she took graciously. Shooting up from her position on the pavement, she gulped in large quantities of air to fill her lungs.

_Oh, sweet oxygen._

Smelling smoke, she frantically glanced around: Taking note of the lamp post, the car, the broken door, the shattered glass on the ground, Elle…

_Whoa, what?_

Claire fixed her wide eyes on the electric blonde, sitting only a foot away, who was staring back at her with the same expression.

_Oh dear God…_

_Did she see it?_ Did Elle watch as her body slowly healed itself?

"_Claire?" _she asked incredulously.

That's it.

She must have seen it.

She saw Claire's ability.

Claire opened her mouth to respond when she was cut off by the sound of sirens. They both turned their heads to look down the street; there were multiple sirens coming from somewhere close by…

"The ambulance is on its' way," Elle said, so softly Claire almost didn't catch it. She turned back to look at Elle then; the other girl's gaze was still focused on the end of the street as she waited for the ambulance to round the corner. Claire wasn't concerned about that though as she suddenly took note of the hand Elle cradled against her body.

"_Elle_," Claire spoke loudly to get the girl's attention. Once Elle met her gaze again, she glanced pointedly at the older blonde's bleeding hand.

Elle glanced down.

"It's just a scratch," she murmured before turning to look down the street again.

Claire wasn't convinced. There was blood seeping through her fingers and down her arm. Claire was about to take the girl's hand and inspect it herself when Elle spoke again.

"The ambulance will be here soon," she said, turning her electric blue eyes back to Claire's. Claire heard the ambulance round the corner, but she couldn't drag her eyes away from the striking hue. Try as she might, she couldn't read Elle's expression; for the first time in a while it was totally blank. "I'll follow you to the hospital, but…" Elle started tentatively, but let her voice trail off.

Claire understood her hesitance. "They'll call my father," she finished somberly.

Elle nodded, "I won't let him see me."

Claire nodded as well. They didn't get another chance to talk after that as the ambulance screeched to a halt beside them. She continued to watch Elle as the paramedics tended to the girl's bleeding hand, but Elle didn't once glance back at her… even as Claire was being strapped down onto the stretcher.

She began to worry.

_What is Elle thinking?_

[some time later at the hospital]

"I'm fine, Mom, please" Claire held her hand up to her mother. "No more kisses," she begged.

"Oh, I know, I know," her mom sniffed. "I was just so _worried_, Claire," she brushed her daughter's hair off her forehead. "Don't you ever do that to me again."

Claire sighed, "I'm sorry, Mom. It was just a freak accident."

"I know, honey," she let out a tired sigh, "I'm gonna go get some coffee. Your dad should be here soon." With that, she gave her daughter a small smile and left the room. Claire stared after the woman and swallowed softly as she played with her fingers. If it were possible to die from anxiousness, she'd be well on her way.

Brody was fine. He was banged up quite a bit, but he regained consciousness before they even got to the hospital. Though the police hadn't started asking questions yet, she could tell by the look in Brody's eyes that he was _well aware_ of what happened and would have _no problem_ telling anyone.

_God, I didn't think this through._ _How am I going to explain this to my parents? We'll have to move… I'll be known all over town as the psycho football slaying cheerleader._

Claire gulped. If they moved, she would have to say goodbye to Elle… again.

Somehow that thought pained her more than the situation with Brody.

Claire never saw the electric blonde again after she was loaded in the ambulance. Elle was well enough that she could take her own car, so she didn't ride with Claire; the younger blonde had felt somewhat disappointed about that at the time. But now that she had been at the hospital for a while and she _still_ didn't seen Elle anywhere… she was beginning to wonder if the older blonde ever made it there.

_Maybe she just promised to follow me here so that she could ditch me and run to the nearest news station._

Claire shook her head quickly. Despite everything that happened that night, Elle wouldn't do that.

She took in a deep, shuddering breath.

At least she didn't _think_ Elle would do something like that.

She was broken from her thoughts by someone dashing into the room. Noah Bennet glanced around quickly until his eyes fell on his daughter. Claire offered him a small smile and her father breathed a sigh of relief.

Stepping over to the bed, he reached out and placed a hand over hers. He smiled softly down at her, "Hi."

"Hi," she responded, her smile deepening.

Noah leaned in closer as he spoke softly to his daughter, "Your mother said you lost control of the car."

Claire lost her smile. Swallowing hard, she looked down at their entwined hands.

_It's now or never._

"That's what I told her happened," she spoke barely above a whisper.

Looking back up to meet his gaze, she watched as his smile slowly slipped off his face. He glanced over his shoulder then to see the doctors milling about in the hallway. Moving away from the bed, he went to shut the door before pulling a chair up beside the hospital bed and taking Claire's hand again.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" he asked.

Claire swallowed nervously as she watched her father. Biting down, she could feel the sting of tears filling her eyes. "I ran the car into the wall on purpose," she whispered.

He raised his eyebrows but responded sensibly, "You could have _killed_ yourself…"

"I wasn't thinking about me," she quickly cut it.

"Well, what _were_ you thinking about?" he asked, raising his volume slightly as he gave his daughter a stern look.

Claire paused and stared at the ceiling while she deliberated her answer.

"Claire?" he prodded. She looked over to meet his gaze again. "You've got to start _trusting _me," he finished.

Claire took in a shaky breath and let it out as the tears started welling up in her eyes. "The night of the bonfire…" she started.

"What happened, Claire?" though he had been keeping his cool before, Claire noted the small note of urgency and concern in his voice.

She squeezed her eyes shut, letting a few small tears escape down her cheeks. "He tried to…" she started wobbly. She took in another shaky breath and tried again, "He tried to force me."

Noah watched her silently for a moment. "The quarterback?"

"He threw me down, and I hit my head and… I woke up somewhere else," she lied quickly, covering up the part where Elle had saved her. She started to cry then, not being able to hold back her tears any longer. "I'm sorry," she choked out, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you." She looked up to meet his gaze, "I didn't know what else to do; I can't _prove_ anything." She paused for a moment, "He was gonna get away with it _again_." Noah stared at her with wide eyes. "I'm not the only one," she told him.

"Please," she started again, squeezing his hand, "You can't say anything."

Her father looked away before turning back and offering her a strained smile. "No one's gonna know," he said. She rested her head back against the pillow as he reached up to stroke her hair.

"No one is gonna know a thing."

**EPOV**

Elle scratched at the torture device the doctors had put on her hand. They said it would keep her cut from getting infected, but the material of the bandage just made her hand itch like a _motherf-!_

She grumbled softly and looked around her room for something small enough to wedge under the bandage. She spotted a pencil.

_Ah HA!_

She went to grab it when a sharp knock on her door derailed her. Turning around quickly, she hid her hand behind her back as Bob Bishop strode in.

Her daddy glanced around the small room before his gaze landed on Elle. He raised his hands and eyebrows expectantly.

"_So?"_ he asked.

Elle froze. _Uhh…_ "So what?

Bob Bishop looked at his daughter with an exasperated expression. "_So_, I just came from the hospital," he started. When Elle continued to give him a blank stare, he went on, "Claire Bennet?" Elle felt her heart skip and her stomach drop at the cheerleader's name. "…She was in a car wreck tonight with some boy… The guy got banged up pretty bad, but Claire somehow managed to escape without a scratch?" He continued to look at Elle expectantly, "Is any of this ringing any bells? … You were supposed to _follow_ her, were you not?"

Elle was overwhelmed by the slew of emotions running through her at that moment. She had been doing her best not to think of the younger blonde… not to think about what she had seen that night.

Claire… lying in a pool of her own blood… before the wounds miraculously healed before her eyes.

Claire's ability. _Claire's a healer,_ she knew. She had found the answer her daddy was looking for.

Elle was successful… _I finished my first solo mission_, she thought as her lips tightened ever so slightly. Now all she had to do was report to her father and tell him what she had learned…

She met Bob Bishop's gaze and thought about everything. Not just about Claire's ability, but everything. She thought about the life she had known growing up in the compound… She thought about Claire's life, how she had managed to escape that. Elle's eyes unfocused as her thoughts drifted on…

She thought about the cheerleader herself… her smile, her laugh… those sparkling green eyes…

"I wasn't there," the words suddenly fell from her mouth. Meeting her father's eyes again, she took note of the rage building there. Being somewhat shocked by the lie herself, she quickly continued, her voice void of emotion, "I didn't know how long they would be practicing for… and I was hungry." She watched her father's expression carefully as he grew red in the face. "I went to get something to eat, and when I came back, they were gone."

Bob Bishop looked like he was about to explode.

Elle, feeling an unusual wave of calm settle over her, didn't feel threatened in the least.

"I'm sorry I let you down, Daddy," she finished, monotone.

Bob Bishop stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

**CPOV**

Claire swallowed hard before she pushed the hospital door open. The heart monitor beeped steadily as she approached the bed. She took note of the cuts and bruises… the neck brace and the cast on his arm. Though Brody Mitchum probably deserved a lot worse, it pained Claire to know that she was responsible for such damage.

She sighed and went to stand next to him. He simply watched her with a blank stare.

"Hi Brody," she started softly. "I know you probably don't want to see me right now or hear what I have to say… but I have to say it." She paused to see if he would interrupt her; he didn't. She continued, "What you did to me... What you _tried_ to do," she corrected, "… was wrong."

Brody just blinked at her.

"But what I did to you was wrong, too," she said, "I'm sorry… I think everyone deserves a do-over at least once in their lives…"

Brody blinked at her again, and studied her with a confused expression.

_Why is he looking at me like that?_ She wondered as she watched him.

He swallowed gently and began to talk. "I don't… know you," he started, "Who are you?"

_Umm_… _What?_

"Brody, it's me… Claire," she stated, scrunching her eyebrows together in confusion. _What's wrong with him?_

He looked nervous then as he regarded her warily. He swallowed again.

"Uh... why do you keep calling me Brody?"

* * *

**A/N: Yes yes, very short chapter, I know. I promise there will be more Claire and Elle face time in chapter 10. Thanks for reading!**


	10. Chapter 10

_******Shortest chapter followed by the longest chapter :) Hopefully Chapter 10 will make up for Chapter 9's length... or lack there of. Thanks to everyone for the reviews!******_

Chapter 10

* * *

**CPOV**

_Brody doesn't remember me…_

_Hell, Brody doesn't remember himself._

Claire had been going back and forth over that for the last several hours. Once the doctors gave her the okay to leave, her parents swiftly escorted her home and up into her room… where she stayed for most of the next day. She had tried to sleep a few times, but always woke up after about thirty minutes. As soon as she would fall asleep, she'd end up in some twisted dream either with her and Brody in his car or with her and Elle running from some madman in the paper factory. Neither of the dreams was pleasant.

She just… couldn't shut her brain off. Everything that had happened over the past week was finally catching up with her and she didn't know what to do with all the information.

Letting out a sigh, she rolled over to look at her clock. It was 2 in the afternoon… _So, I haven't moved from this spot in like… 12 hours._

"God, I'm pathetic," she muttered to herself. At least she had changed out of her bloodied clothes, though.

She swallowed hard when she thought back to the events the night before… What she did to Brody and Elle's unexpected appearance. _What was she even doing there?_ Claire wondered. That was another question she added to the already long list of unanswered questions; that one came right after the question of how in the _hell _Brody lost all his memories.

Her father discussed it with her on the way home. He told her all about fugue, and that sometimes, after a traumatic experience, a person can completely lose all their memories… even their identity. Claire didn't really have a response to that. It made sense… but didn't seem to fit in _their _situation.

She remembered so clearly when she and Brody were rolled into the hospital together. He was right beside her at one point and was glaring at her with the most evil look she'd ever seen… She was even sure she heard him say, "Crazy bitch," through his various bandages. So… it didn't really make sense that he remembered everything _then_, shortly after the crash, and then forgot _later_.

She didn't bring that up to her father, though.

And then there was the whole situation with Elle to worry about.

She shook her head at the thought.

_Elle…_

What was she going to say to the girl? She knew that Elle had seen her… or seen had _something_ at least. Claire wasn't positive that Elle had actually _seen_ her body heal itself… for all she knew, Elle may have just trotted up.

She replayed the memory slowly in her mind before shaking her head gently.

From the way Elle had been staring at Claire, wide eyed and open mouthed, she had probably been sitting there long enough to see _everything_.

Claire groaned and pulled the pillow over her head.

_This is ridiculous… I should just talk to her._

Pulling the pillow off, she stared at the ceiling. Surely if Elle hadn't said anything to anyone by now, that meant she was waiting for Claire to explain… right?

Of course, how would _that_ conversation go?

"_Hey Elle, sorry I freaked you out the other night. Remember that thing you saw? Where my fatal wounds magically healed themselves? Oh yeah, see I have this special gene… well, I'm not really sure what it is, but I'm basically immortal. Oh yeah… you could cut my foot off and it would grow right back. Neat, huh? Wanna go grab a Slush-O?"_

Claire groaned again and dragged herself out of bed. Holding her phone to her chest, she started to pace around her room.

_Maybe I shouldn't jump right into it. Maybe I should figure out what all she saw first._

Yeah, that's a good idea. Claire would meet up with Elle just to talk… Once she knew _for sure_ what Elle saw, _then_ she'd decide what to tell older blonde. _Good thinking, Bennet!_

Opening her phone, she quickly wrote out a text message.

_**hey elle, we need 2 talk. there's a carnival at the edge of town. itll only b here 4 a few weeks. how about u meet me there 7?**_

_Good_, she told herself. Nice, public place… hopefully then Elle won't make a scene when she finds out about Claire's ability to regrow limbs.

Her phone beeped a few minutes later.

_**Sure.**_

Claire chewed on her lip. Not exactly a very encouraging response, but she would take it.

_**ok, c u there.**_

Stopping to think for a moment, she quickly sent another text.

_**try 2 wear some normal clothes :)**_

**EPOV**

Elle sighed as she watched her rear view mirror. The Bennet residence sat there, quiet and unmoving. But Elle knew a teenage girl had been laying restless inside for at least the last eight hours.

Claire hadn't gone to school that day; she was probably excused due to the car wreck. So, Elle had been sitting there… unmoving since 6 o'clock that morning. Her father woke her up bright and early at 5, telling her to get a move on. Since Elle "hadn't" witnessed Claire miraculously walk away from a car wreck unscathed, she was still on a mission. And Bob Bishop was not about to let her shy away from her responsibilities no matter how late of a night she had.

She blinked slowly. Though she was tired, she couldn't really sleep… And she never left to get lunch either. Nope. Her eyes hadn't moved from that house since she first arrived there that morning.

Elle didn't know what was going on with her. She didn't understand why she had lied to her daddy the day before. She had the information… but something was stopping her. Even now it was evident as she refused to leave the cheerleader's house. She needed to be around Claire. She had to watch over her.

Elle swallowed gently.

She knew what Claire's text was referring to, of course… They needed to talk about last night.

Claire wanted to talk to her about what she saw.

Elle had already run through the conversation many times in her head, and she had already come up with plausible lies for _any _suspicious question Claire might have. What made her anxious, though, is what Claire would tell her. Would the girl lie? Would she try to cover up what Elle had seen? Those were the questions that made her nervous.

Elle already knew the truth, of course, but would Claire tell her? Would Claire entrust her with that information? If she did… would Elle return the favor? Would Elle tell Claire about her ability?

Elle quickly shut her eyes and shook her head at the thought.

_I can't tell her_.

Though she wanted to, she couldn't. If she told Claire about her ability, Claire would put two and two together about the company… about what their father's did for a living… what _Elle_ did for a living. Then all hell would break loose.

Elle sighed again as she let her eyes rest for a minute.

_I won't tell, Claire… but I need to hear what she has to tell me._

[later that night]  
**CPOV**

Claire's eyes lit up as she walked towards the carnival entrance. It had been a while since she'd been to one of these… She had almost forgotten how beautiful they were at night, with all the neon lights on the rides contrasting with the dark night sky. Claire smiled softly to herself. _Elle's gonna love this._

She walked aimlessly until she finally spotted the girl. She had her back to Claire, but that hair was unmistakable. Claire walked slowly up behind her as she took in the girl's wardrobe: baggy, gray pants with a loose fitting black shirt… and her black converse sneakers. Claire chuckled softly, not only at the totally _Elle_ outfit, but at the fact she'd found the older blonde standing right smack dab in the middle of the food stations.

_That's my girl._

Claire bit down on her lip as she gently reached up to place her hand on the slightly taller girl's shoulder. Elle tensed at the touch and slowly turned to face her.

Claire gulped.

She had thought that bringing Elle here would maybe lighten the mood. With all the sights and the smells, she was _sure_ Elle would be bouncing with excitement. But she wasn't. Elle was wearing that mask again; her eyes portraying absolutely nothing as to what she was feeling. Claire had never seen the older blonde look so… dead before.

_Okay… it's straight to business, I guess._

Claire chewed on her lip for a moment longer before motioning to one of the deserted tables not too far off. They walked over in silence and awkwardly sat down across each other. Claire rested her arms on the table, idly playing with her fingers, while Elle watched on with the same blank stare. It made her nervous. _What is she thinking?_ Claire thought, swallowing hard. _This would be so much easier if I could just see her._

Elle just continued to stare though, not giving away any hints to help Claire along. The younger girl looked around, shifting uncomfortably in her seat as she tried to think of how to start this conversation. _Try to figure out what she knows, _she reminded herself. She took in a shaky breath as she absently glanced down at Elle's bandaged hand.

Claire froze.

She had almost forgotten about it.

Last night seemed so fuzzy to her now, but she distinctly remembered Elle's bleeding hand. She wanted to reach out and hold it, but held back… not sure how the other girl would react. Instead she gently nodded towards it, making Elle glance down.

"What happened?" Claire asked softly. Though there was plenty of noise in the background, they were somewhat secluded behind a concession stand so they could speak quietly amongst themselves.

"I sliced it open," Elle responded as she stared at her hand.

Claire swallowed softly, "How?"

Elle looked back up to meet her gaze; her eyes void of emotion. "When I pulled that giant ass piece of glass out of your throat," she said, monotone.

Claire gulped audibly.

_I think it's safe to say she saw everything…_

"Right," Claire said softly, feeling her heart lodge itself in her throat.

_Fuck._

Claire shifted around in her seat again, avoiding Elle's watchful gaze as she tried to think of something to say. "You didn't have to do that," she muttered softly.

"I thought you were dying, Claire," she raised her voice a little. Claire lifted her gaze up to see Elle's eyes starting to smolder. "I just realized too late that you were already dead…"

Claire gulped again.

_Fuuuuuck fuck fuck._

"Right," Claire mumbled, looking down at her hands. "Right."

_C'mon Claire, you can do this. You can trust her… if you couldn't, she wouldn't be here right now waiting for an explanation… she'd be on the next talk show talking about the Miracle Grow cheerleader from Odessa, TX._

Claire took in a few deep breaths before scooting closer to the table and leaning forward on her elbows. Elle noted the movement and leaned forward herself, bringing their faces only a few precious inches apart.

Claire chewed on her lip while she used the close proximity to study Elle's eyes. Although they were still void of emotion, they seemed more open now… and if Claire looked really hard… she could see a faint flicker of hope. _She wants me to trust her_, Claire finally decided.

Clearing her throat softly, she looked back down at her hands and began. "I have this… thing… that I can do," she twisted her fingers together anxiously, "I know it's hard to believe, but… Well, you've seen it." To emphasize her point, she looked up into Elle's eyes. "I can heal… faster than normal people," she started. Sighing softly she continued, "I don't know why and I don't know how… all I know is that I can." She paused before starting again, "I've cut myself and watched the wound close again in a matter of seconds. I've jumped off bridges and have been able to snap my bones back into place… I've walked through fire and not been burned."

She gulped softly and looked pleadingly into the older blonde's eyes, "No one knows about this other than me and my friend, Zach… and now you." She bit down on her lip hard, "Please don't tell anyone."

Elle didn't say anything for a long moment; she simply froze in her spot and continued to stare at the shorter girl. Claire was beginning to wonder if she'd speak at all when suddenly Elle snorted and sat back, casually glancing over at the concession stand, "Not like anyone would believe me anyway… You want a pronto pup?"

…

….. _What?_

"_What?"_ Claire said, not so quietly.

"I believe it's… a very big corn dog," Elle continued, studying the menu.

Claire watched somewhat shocked as the girl engrossed herself in the list of the different foods they offered.

_What… the hell?_

"Elle, did you hear what I just said?" Claire asked incredulously.

"Yeah, I heard you, Pom Pom," she said, standing up to retrieve the wallet from her back pocket.

Claire scoffed, "And you have nothing to say about that?"

The older blonde looked at her oddly and suddenly the old Elle was back, "About… what?"

Claire stood up, giving the taller girl her most disbelieving look. _Oh my God, is she serious?_

"Oh, _I don't know_," she started sarcastically, "What about the fact that I'm a _freak_?" she nearly shouted, but suddenly lost her nerve when Elle's face darkened significantly.

Elle came around the table and pressed her face in very close to Claire's; past the personal bubble boundary. But finding her nose suddenly assaulted with Elle's amazing scent? Claire really didn't mind too much.

"You are not a _freak_, Claire," Elle said, so seriously the younger girl almost felt her knees buckle from under her, "So you have some special gene that causes you to heal faster than others, _so what?_" Elle took the opportunity to wave her bandaged hand around, "Sounds like a pretty _sweet_ deal to me."

Claire swallowed and looked down, suddenly feeling ashamed. _Why did I think Elle would have such a problem with this? It's Elle… she cares about me… Probably in her own, twisted way, but she cares about me nonetheless_.

Claire nodded and looked back up to meet Elle's concerned gaze for a long moment. They simply stood there and stared at each other before Claire's gaze dropped back down to Elle's bandaged hand.

A wave of guilt passed through her.

Quickly forgetting about the personal space bubble, she took Elle's hand gently in hers and pressed a soft kiss to the bandage.

Elle didn't move to pull her hand away, just watched on with wide eyes. Claire let her lips linger there for a moment before pulling her head back up; they were standing very close now. Studying Elle's eyes, she was comforted when she found a whirlwind of emotions flying there. Claire smiled softly. "Thank you," she finally said, "You keep coming to my rescue."

Elle gulped audibly. "Yeah well…" suddenly looking around to break the contact, "You can pay me back by buying me a pronto pup. Seriously, I haven't eaten all day, and… I think they're starting to sing to me."

Claire cracked up as she walked with the older blonde over to the concession stand.

She was back.

Her Elle was back.

**EPOV**

_Oh my God, I'm in heaven._

Elle polished off her third pronto pup as she followed a few steps behind Claire. This was her first time at one of these carnival things, and she _never_ wanted to leave. The sights, the sounds… the food… everything was just perfect.

"What's that?" she asked, stuffing the last bite into her mouth before promptly licking her fingers.

Claire turned back to glance at her. "It's the games section," falling into step beside Elle again, she continued, "You give the attendants money and you play the game to win a prize."

Elle's eyes scanned over the variety of games; each tent was filled with kids and adults enjoying themselves. "What kind of prize?" she asked after a moment.

"Mmm," Claire looked around, "Stuffed animals mostly, but they have other toys, too."

Elle snorted, "What are we? Five? …_Ooo_, look! A _duck_ game!" She quickly dashed over to the nearly deserted tent, "I _love_ ducks!"

Claire came up behind her a moment later, chuckling softly at something. "How do you play?" Elle asked the middle aged guy behind the counter.

"_Welllll_," the attendant dragged out, "You take the gun there and shoot as many ducks as you can."

Elle froze.

…_What?_

She looked at the guy incredulously. "_Why_ would I want to _shoot_ the ducks?" Elle asked, slightly angered. His eyes widened at her tone. When he didn't respond, she turned to Claire for an answer.

Claire met her gaze and slowly bit down on her lip; there was something that looked like amusement in her eyes. "Does that um… _upset _you?" the younger girl's voice shook a little as she tried to contain herself.

"Hell _yes_, it upsets me," Elle turned to the attendant then, "What did those poor little ducks do to you?" She grabbed a hold of Claire then and started to drag her out of the tent, but not before turning to the baffled attendant one last time, "You should be _ashamed _of yourself!"

Elle managed to drag Claire a good distance away from the tent when she finally had to stop; Claire was doubled over with laughter. "_What_ is so funny?"

"Nothing," Claire gasped out as she straightened herself back up again. She quickly wiped at her eyes while her chuckles died down. "Oh God," she murmured, letting out one more small chuckle. Glancing over Elle's shoulder, Claire nodded behind the girl, "What about that one?"

Elle turned to see a bunch of kids sitting in front of a counter. Each stool had an odd looking water gun attached in front of it, and in front of the guns was a line of targets. Up above the targets, Elle could make out the tiny outlines of cars. "What does that one do?"

Claire stepped forward while she explained. "Well, you're racing against the other contestants," she started, nodding to the kids that were already seated on most of the stools, "You each have a water gun that you aim at the target. When the water hits the center of the target, your car moves." Claire paused to point out the different numbers on the cars, explaining how they coordinated with the different stools. "As long as the water stays on target, your car will automatically move towards the finish line," she pointed to the end of the board, "Whoever gets there first wins."

"Hmmm," Elle thought for a moment, "Let's do it!"

Claire smiled and shook her head as she went to pay the attendant. Elle bounced happily onto her stool. Chewing on her lip, she studied the gun in front of her with a frown. "Uh oh…" she muttered.

"Uh oh what?" Claire asked when she came back to Elle's side.

Elle grumbled. "You have to have both thumbs to operate this thing," she stated, gesturing to the two-hand-handle on the gun. She waved her gimp hand in the air. "I'm one handed," she sighed.

"I'll help you," Claire told her, and nodded for her to get in position as the game was about to begin. Elle sat forward and grabbed the right handle with her good hand while Claire pressed in behind her. The older blonde bit down on her lip hard as Claire leaned against her and reached forward to grab the left handle. She could smell the younger girl's fruity shampoo as she leaned over Elle's shoulder.

_Just breathe_, she told herself.

She suddenly found that hard though when Claire rested her free hand on Elle's waist to keep her balance.

Elle gulped.

"Alright, is every one ready?" the attendant called. Everyone shouted their approval as he raised his flag. "On your mark… get set!... GO!" he yelled and waved the flag. Both Claire and Elle immediately pushed down on their respected buttons while a jet stream shot forward towards the target.

"Ooo!" Elle yelled as they struggled to center the stream on the target, "Left, pull left!"

"Well, if you would hold still!" Claire shouted back, laughing over her shoulder. They struggled with it for the rest of the game. Elle yelled and bounced in her seat the whole time, yelling at Claire to move this way and that… Despite their efforts, though, they finished last. The attendant shook his head at them while they cackled.

"Okay, so that was kind of fun," Elle stated, letting go of the handle.

Claire smiled, "You want to play again?"

Elle snorted, "Are you kidding? We sucked."

Claire laughed and agreed.

Elle had worked up an appetite with the game so she decided to go grab some more food; Claire opted to stay behind and play some more games.

_Mmm, fried oreos_.

She still couldn't believe that they had so many deliciously "bad for you" foods in one place. It should be illegal! But Elle was enjoying herself way too much to care… She was sure she'd probably gained at least 10 pounds already.

She wandered around aimlessly while she munched on her oreos. She remembered the general direction of the games and was sure if she just kept heading that way she'd stumble upon them eventually.

The night had been awesome so far. She was worried and somewhat terrified when she first arrived… Though she had been surrounded by the scent of greasy, fattening foods, she couldn't think about eating… not until her and Claire got that conversation out of the way.

_She trusted me_, Elle thought, smiling softly to herself. _She told me her deepest, darkest secret._

She frowned then, and looked down at her last oreo with a sickened expression. _Maybe I should trust her, too…_

"Hey Elle!" a voice called in front of her. She looked up to see Claire bounding happily in her direction. "Guess what?" she asked giddily when she finally reached the older blonde.

Elle looked at her warily while she tossed her last cookie in the garbage. "What?" she asked, studying the shorter girl; she appeared to be holding something behind her back.

Claire's grin deepened as she pulled out the masked item.

Elle's eyes widened before she let out a delighted squeal.

"You won me a_ duck_?"

**CPOV**

Claire laughed as Elle jumped up and down a few times before snatching the giant, yellow duck from Claire's grasp. She had spotted the duck earlier and knew Elle would love it. When Elle had left earlier to get food, she figured that was her perfect opportunity to get it…

It took about 20 minutes and 30 bucks before she knocked all the pins over, but the look on Elle's face at that moment was totally worth it.

"Awwww!" Elle cooed as she pushed in at its' stomach… It was very fluffy and soft. Elle pouted adorably and hugged the giant creature to her, "It's so squishy and cute."

Claire chuckled some more, feeling warmed to her toes. "I thought you might like it."

Elle nodded eagerly as she turned her attention back to the stuffed animal and continued to poke at its' stomach. "It's my second favorite stuffed animal," she said absently.

Claire narrowed her eyes slightly. _Does Elle still sleep with stuffed animals?_ She chuckled and shook her head at the thought.

_Of course she does._

Claire continued to smile as she watched the older woman coddle her new friend. "What's your favorite stuffed animal?" she decided to ask.

Elle froze in her movements.

"Um… what?" the taller blonde asked, keeping her eyes locked on the duck.

Claire watched her suspiciously. "You said this was your second favorite," she started, patting the duck on the head, "What's your favorite?"

Elle's jaw muscles flexed before she swallowed gently. Claire watched the contours of her throat with fascination before returning her eyes to the older blonde's face. "Elle?"

Elle sighed. "My favorite stuffed animal…" she started, rubbing her nose against the duck's beak, "Is my pink and purple teddy bear."

Claire froze then.

Elle bit her lip and finally slid her gaze over to Claire's. "The one you gave me," she finished before quickly turning her attention back to the duck.

Claire felt the muscles in her throat constrict as she tried to swallow down the emotion she was feeling. It didn't work. She let out a choked laugh and tears sprang into her eyes. She gave Elle a wobbly smile. "You still have the teddy I gave you?" she asked softly.

Elle swallowed again before nodding swiftly.

Claire's smile deepened, and she reached up to place a hand over her racing heart in hopes to calm it.

_God, what you do to me_, she thought, swallowing hard.

She quickly shook her head and tried to get a hold of herself. _Calm yourself, Bennet… you're gonna freak her out._

Claire took in a deep breath and let it out before letting her gaze wander elsewhere. Elle was still refusing to look at her while she played with her duck, so Claire decided it would be best not to stare at the older blonde like a love sick puppy.

She glanced around the games nearby and then took her gaze off into the distance where her eyes fixed on a giant, spinning wheel. She smiled as she quickly grabbed a hold of Elle and started to drag her off. "C'mon," she said without offering an explanation. Elle just followed along quietly, still gripping her duck.

Claire dragged her clear across the carnival until they finally made it to their destination.

Elle froze in her tracks, refusing to let Claire pull her any farther. Claire looked back at her questioningly and found Elle staring back at her with wide, disbelieving eyes.

Elle let out a nervous laugh then, "Ha-ha-haaa." She lost her smile immediately and turned serious. "_No_," she told Claire firmly.

"Oh come _on_, Elle," Claire said, gesturing towards the giant ferris wheel. "It's not gonna kill you."

Elle really laughed then… a bitter laugh. "No no no… it won't kill _you_, Claire Bennet," she corrected. "Because when this thing falls and crushes our fragile bodies with its' rusty rails and…" she paused to look at the ride, "truly tacky looking light display…" she grimaced before continuing, "_You_… will grow back all your missing appendages." With that, she turned to walk away, but Claire quickly latched onto her.

"Ugh, it's perfectly safe, you cry baby," she nagged, "You're being ridiculous."

"No no, _that_-" Elle jabbed her finger in the direction of the ride, "-is the fiery wheel of death and destruction." Claire started to speak but Elle cut her off, "I don't care how _safe _you think it is. Elle does not do heights, okay?"

Claire groaned, "Ugh dear God, Elle, you'll be fine." She started to drag the unwilling blonde towards the ferris wheel again. "I'll be right there with you the whole time."

Elle grumbled all through the line. Claire seriously thought the girl was going to make a dash for it as soon as it was their turn. She didn't however. She let Claire drag her all the way onto the staging area so that they could get in their car.

"Excuse me, miss," one of the ride attendants interrupted. Claire turned to see he was talking to Elle. "You can leave your, uh… duck down here if you like."

Elle raised her eyebrows at the guy, and Claire barely contained her laughter.

"No, he will be accompanying me, thank you," with that she dismissed him. Claire chuckled at his baffled expression.

The cars were really small, but they somehow managed to squeeze into it with Elle's duck sitting on the end. It was a tight squeeze, though. Elle decided to place her arm on the back of the car behind Claire while her other hand gripped the metal railing holding them in. The movement brought the two of them even closer together; the smaller girl tucked safely into Elle's side. Claire was trying to remember how to breathe correctly when the car suddenly took off, eliciting a tiny squeal from Elle.

Claire turned her head to cover up her laughter.

"You think this is funny, do ya?" Elle asked sharply, but quickly lost her anger as they reached the top. "ohdeargoodnessohdeargoodness" She alternated between her mantra and her deep breathing exercise... which reminded Claire of a woman in labor.

She had to bite down on her lip hard to keep from laughing at the girl's antics, but it was just so funny. They went around a few times without much trouble, but on the fourth time around the ride unexpectedly halted with them directly at the top.

"Oh dear God, what is happening?" Elle gasped in horror. "It's breaking isn't it? The ride is breaking and we're gonna fall to our deaths."

Claire gently slipped her arms around the girl, trying to calm her as she looked over the back. Glancing down she could see the attendants hurriedly trying to usher someone off the ride. "Looks like someone got sick," Claire stated.

"What? Where?" Elle started to lean forward, but immediately halted her movement when she sent the car rocking. "Oh no, _fuck_ no," she squealed, "Make it stop!"

"Okay okay," Claire laughed softly while she stroked the girl gently, "Calm down, we're fine, sweetie."

Elle started her erratic breathing exercise again and Claire chuckled at the sight.

She held the girl close and whispered in her ear. "Try to focus on one thing in front of you…" she started softly, "Something that's not moving… keep your eyes on it and just breathe." She thought she felt Elle shiver as Claire's mouth accidentally brushed across her ear. Neither of them moved to part, though. Claire swallowed hard. She turned her face slightly forward to see if Elle was doing what she said. From the angle of her eyes, Claire guessed she was focusing on the water tower up ahead. She took a few calming breaths before whispering in the girl's ear again, "You okay?"

Elle swallowed gently and nodded while she chewed on her lip. "Yeah, I'm better," she muttered, trying to offer Claire a brave smile without turning to look at her. Claire grinned at her efforts.

_God, she's so beautiful._

Claire closed her eyes, but didn't scold herself this time. Elle _was_ beautiful… _very beautiful_, her mind added. She studied the girl's profile; her soft, ivory skin set against the distant lights of the carnival, while her yellow blonde hair floated gently in the wind. Up there, the sounds from the carnival were muted, and it was just them… lost in their own little world. What was going on in their separate lives didn't matter anymore, not in that moment. They were together… and that moment, though it may only last a matter of seconds, would forever be etched into their memories.

Claire smiled softly as she silently watched the older girl. She could tell that Elle was still freaked out, but she was doing her best to keep her cool. _Such a brave girl_, Claire thought, smiling to herself. She moved to place a gentle kiss on the unsuspecting girl's cheek.

Elle let out a small, nervous laugh. "What was that for?" she spoke softly.

Claire's smile deepened.

"Thought you could use a distraction" she replied just as softly.

"Well, thank you-" Elle started but lost her words when she turned her head. They were sitting so close their noses practically bumped together. Claire suddenly found herself lost in those electric eyes. It was remarkable that it was so dark outside but her eyes still seemed to glow. Elle swallowed softly as she took in the small distance lying between them. Both of them seemed to be holding their breath in fear of shattering the moment.

_This is right… isn't it?_

Claire felt her expression relax softly. She had been fighting this for so long. She knew what she wanted… and she wasn't going to waste another minute.

Not giving it another thought, Claire closed the distance between them.

**EPOV**

Elle froze when she felt Claire's soft mouth press against her own. She was surprised her lips felt just as soft as they looked. Those full, gentle lips just seemed to meld with her own.

After a moment, she finally managed to pull out of her frozen state and started to kiss her back. She lifted her hand off the metal railing and cupped Claire's cheek, feeling her warm, smooth skin in her palm while she pressed in closer, deepening their kiss. She may have never kissed anyone before, but she got the rhythm down quickly enough. Their lips moved together slowly while Elle lost her fingers in that silky, honey blonde hair.

_I could get used to this..._

Their lips collided together again, and Elle lost herself in the warm, tender embrace of the younger girl. There were no thoughts of her dad or Noah Bennet. No thoughts of the company. She had even forgotten about the 50 foot drop to the ground.

All that existed in _that_ moment... was the taste and feel of Claire Bennet… and nothing else mattered in the world.

* * *

**A/N: Mwaha :) definitely one of my favorite chapters.**

**I thought I'd leave y'all off on a good note. Not that this is the end of the story, heavens no, but it's going to start winding down from here. Though this story is already epically long, I don't see it going past 15 or 20 chapters. Sooo, I'm gonna take a break for a few days and kinda regroup to figure out how I want to end this thing. I already have an idea in mind, but I need to figure out how I'm gonna get there.**

**If any of you have any suggestions or anything in particular you want to see, just let me know and I'll take it into consideration.**

**Thanks guys!**


	11. Chapter 11

_******Just a shout out to a few people. Riana, Haruka, Gail, mightyheart, Sanetwin and her insanetwin: You guys are awesome. Thank you so much for your continued support; you have no idea how much it means to me. Thanks to everyone for their reviews, and I'm sorry this chapter took so long. A few of you I've talked to already know this, but I am in the process of starting back up with school. Classes actually started today, so... until I get more situated, my updates might not be quite as speedy as they used to be. Thanks for your patience :)******_

Chapter 11

* * *

**CPOV**

"Mmmm… this one?"

"No."

"_Damnit_," Elle grumbled as she held the can out in front of her. She studied it intently before she turned to Claire with the most adorable pout on her face, "But it's purple?"

Claire snorted. "Put it back, Elle."

Elle continued to pout as she shuffled back over to the shelf and returned the can to its' spot. _Ah… spontaneous grocery shopping date_, Claire chuckled and shook her head as she reached the end of the isle. They had been there for two hours already and they weren't even finished with her mom's grocery list. She hadn't expected it to take this long, but bringing Elle to a foodmart was like taking a kid to Disney World.

"Hmmm," Elle skipped out ahead of her and was already turning down the very next isle.

"Elle, we don't need anything from that section," Claire told her calmly.

Elle only scoffed, "Well, how do you know until you look?" She ignored Claire, once again, and continued down the isle, leaving the shorter blonde to stare after her. Claire rolled her eyes and shook her head, but followed the girl anyway with a small grin. She got the feeling she'd do anything to keep that gorgeous smile on the older blonde's face.

Claire watched as Elle bounced around from shelf to shelf. _She is too easily entertained_, she thought while Elle started examining the different flavors of coffee. _It's a wonder she gets anything done… she'd probably be distracted by a hole in the wall_. Claire chuckled at her thoughts as she slowly pushed the cart behind the other girl. It wasn't like she was complaining, no no… far from it. The longer she was in Elle's company, the better. She could never grow tired of watching the girl. _Speaking of_… Claire let her eyes drop to take in Elle's form for possibly the tenth time since they arrived.

_Mm, yeah… can never tire of that._

Elle was oblivious to Claire checking her out, of course. The icy blue eyes were trained on cookies now. Claire smiled softly as she took in the other girl's outfit. She was slightly disappointed when Elle had arrived more _casually _dressed rather than in one of her fine business suits, but Claire would take this, too. It was very similar to the outfit she wore to the carnival: loose fitting t-shirt accompanied by pants that were almost too big for her. For some reason Elle still wore baggy clothes… Claire guessed after so many years they just became more comfortable. Claire let her eyes roam over the girl again. She had on a faded band tshirt along with worn and torn khakis that could have easily been bought from a second hand store, but they looked good on her. Of course, Claire would probably find a _garbage bag_ attractive on the older blonde.

Claire's eyes lowered and she found her gaze glued to the waistline of the pants. They were slightly tattered but hugged the girl _just_ right; hanging low on her slender hips and leaving Claire to wonder _just how easily_ they could be pulled off … _Ugh_, Claire squeezed her eyes shut, _bad thoughts… bad thoughts!_

Claire was never what most people considered a "typical teen". Of course, being raised by an adoptive family… and the fact that she was otherwise _immortal_… probably played a big role in that. She wasn't like other girls. She didn't sneak out past curfew or get mixed up with drugs or boys. She had crushed on Brody for several months, yeah, but, despite his efforts, Claire was one of the few girls in her class who still had her virginity intact. She told herself she was waiting… waiting for the right person to come along. She had thought that person was Brody, but then, of course, he had shown her a different side to himself. Even before that, though, when she was still convinced he was this _great_ guy… she had no overwhelming desire to sleep with him. She didn't understand the girls who would practically _drool _whenever he walked past… She didn't understand the desperation her classmates shared to have a "piece" of him…

_Maybe I really am gay…_

Because even though she never had those lustful feelings for Brody… they definitely began to manifest themselves whenever the electric blonde was around.

Claire didn't understand it.

She was a perfectly calm, laid back teen with _amazing _control over her hormones… that is until Elle walked into a room. When she _did_… Claire's eyes would immediately take in the gentle swing of her hips, or the hair that fell across the sensual curve of her neck… _then_ Claire wasn't so fine. Her heart would start pounding against her chest, her palms would suddenly start to sweat… all the while butterflies swarmed around in her stomach, leaving her knees to the point of almost buckling underneath her.

When _Elle_ was around… she was just like any other hormonal teen… daydreaming about sex.

A throat cleared in front of her.

Claire snapped out of her trance, a blush swiftly coloring her face as she realized she'd still been staring at the older blonde's hips. Swallowing hard, she looked up to find Elle's questioning gaze. Probably thinking something was wrong with her outfit, the taller girl glanced down at herself before meeting Claire's eyes again, raising her eyebrows at the younger blonde. Claire gave her a small, tight smile and shook her head. Elle's expression relaxed a bit, but she pursed her lips to the side as if contemplating something. Without breaking eye contact, Elle's right hand slowly reached out and pulled a box of oatmeal cream pies from the shelf, holding them out to the young cheerleader.

Claire bit her lip and slowly bent forward to rest her head on the cart, letting out a tired laugh. "_Nooo_, Elle," she finally said, still chuckling softly under her breath.

"_Damnit!_" Elle cursed and tossed the box back on the shelf.

Claire lost herself in a fit of giggles then, staying in her same position as she leaned against the cart, exhausted, her face pointed towards the worn linoleum tile. She heard soft footsteps approaching as she slowly reigned in her laughter. Biting on her lip, she watched while a pair of ragged converse sneakers stepped up next to hers. "Are you… _laughing_ at me?" Elle spoke quietly.

The muscles of her stomach started to cramp in protest as she fell into her laughing fit again.

Elle grumbled.

"_Ohhh_," Claire said, chuckling, while she straightened back up and leaned against the cart close to Elle. "_You _are just adorable," she responded, grinning ridiculously as an unexpected wave of giddiness washed over her.

Elle sighed softly, relenting. "I _am_ pretty adorable," she agreed seriously before meeting Claire's gaze again and returning her grin. Claire laughed.

_Mmm_, she thought, absently reaching up to tuck some yellow blonde hair behind the taller girl's ear as she gazed at her adoringly. Elle scrunched up her nose and gave her an _'aren't I cute?'_ smile. Claire chuckled and shook her head, tugging on the girl's hair gently before moving to push the cart forward again. Elle fell into step behind her and reached out to grab the cart on either side of the shorter girl, helping her push it along while she pressed in close behind her. Claire smiled softly and relished in the nearness of the electric blonde, shivering every so often when Elle's front accidentally brushed across Claire's back. _Hmmm_, she thought absently as she slowed to a stop next to the breads. She took the opportunity to lean back against Elle while she studied the different brands. _Now this is what I call shopping_, she sighed contentedly.

Claire tried to take advantage of the older girl's presence as much as she could. It was hard dating this strikingly beautiful woman but not being able to show her off. Almost _five days_ had passed since the first night they kissed, and although she'd seen Elle almost every day since, it was only for brief periods of time. They had to hide from everyone; from her father, from Elle's father, even from the people at school… No one could know about them without it getting back around to their parents.

Claire let out a slightly weary sigh as she thought back over the last week.

They had texted, sure, but aside from that, they were only able to spend the short amount of time it took Elle to drive her home from school every day together. Of course, they'd hang out in her car for a little longer to, uh… make up for lost time, but it wasn't enough for Claire. Ten minute make out sessions every day hardly qualified as a relationship. Claire bit her lip then as she leaned her head back against Elle's shoulder. They hadn't even been together for a week… but that was the fun part about being in a new relationship. Everything was new to them and they should be spending all their available time together. She didn't want to rush things, but at the rate they were going, they wouldn't have a _real_ date until Claire graduated from high school.

She sighed again and picked out some bread before moving on to the next isle; Elle following behind her silently.

_At least Elle came to the football game_, Claire smiled at the memory. They hadn't spent a lot of time together since the carnival, but seeing Elle sitting in the stands when they got ready to do their first cheer… Claire had felt her heart lodge in her throat. Jackie eventually had to nudge her to make her snap out of her daze and start the cheer. Elle had smiled at her then, and every moment Claire looked up into the stands after that, she was sure to find the electric blue eyes trained on her. Up until that night, Elle had still been kind of hesitant about the kissing thing. Whenever they were in the company car together, it was usually Claire that initiated the heavy kissing and petting. But that night… Elle had apparently become _too_ comfortable with it.

Claire and her friends had dashed off to the concession stand during halftime, and as they were waiting in line, Claire spotted a flash of bright blonde hair moving to the side of the building. She quickly spouted a little white lie about needing to pee before she turned and followed Elle into the bathroom… where the taller blonde promptly decided to lay one on the cheerleader while pressing her gently against the wall. Claire had gasped and quickly held Elle back at arm's length while the few spectators looked between them with widened, shocked eyes. Luckily Claire didn't recognize any of them, but the awkwardness in the small space quickly arrived at a suffocating level as the other women hurriedly excused themselves and dashed out.

Needless to say, Claire and Elle had a _long_ conversation afterwards about the difference between secret make out sessions and Public Displays of Affection.

Claire chuckled quietly to herself which earned her a curious glance from Elle. Claire laughed again at her expression before shaking her head.

She had almost jumped for joy when her mom asked her to go grocery shopping that afternoon. It was the weekend, and although Claire had tried to convince Elle to slip in through her window the night before, the older girl had refused; insisting that it was too risky with Noah downstairs. Claire had sighed but agreed. She was beginning to fear she wouldn't see the girl at all during her break from school when she found the perfect opportunity:

Grocery shopping.

As soon as she left the house, she was calling Elle, telling her to meet Claire at their gas station. Ten minutes later, Elle was slipping into her mom's SUV and they were off… to the shopping center just a little ways outside of town. There was a store closer by, but she figured it would be better this way… they'd run into fewer people they knew.

And her plan had turned out fantastically… aside from Elle getting distracted by every other item on the shelves.

"Mmm," Elle stated behind her. She turned her head slightly to see Elle's gaze had fallen on the donut section. _Oh, here we go…_

Elle let out an exasperated sigh when she noticed Claire's expression. "Ugh, I just… want to _look_ at the sugary halos, Claire Bear," she said, using her childhood nick name. Claire rolled her eyes in response.

"Fine," she gave in, noticing that the fruit section wasn't too far off. She could get her mom's bananas while Elle hugged the glass case full of pastries. "Just _look _though," Claire said, giving her a stern look. She'd really hate it if Elle were thrown out because she was giving herself 'free' samples. "I'll be over in the fruit section" she finished, nodding farther down the way.

Elle nodded, a bright smile blossoming on her face before she skipped away. Claire gave a small snort of laughter before turning away from the girl.

_Okay, bananas,_ Claire looked down at her list and was glad to see that was the last item she needed. She wandered aimlessly through the fruit section while her eyes sought out the flash of yellow and green. _Hmmm bananas_, she repeated again, unaware that she'd silently started singing the Gwen Stefani song in her head... _B-A-N-A-N-A-S!_

_Ah, there you are_, she thought as she quickly grabbed a handful. She started to inspect them closer to see which ones her mom would prefer when the sound of laughter caught her attention. It wasn't Elle's laugh, that was for sure, but it seemed to be coming from the donut section. Claire casually glanced over the variety of shelves until her eyes spotted the electric blonde hair.

Elle, of course, was completely facing the case of pastries, resting her hands on the glass like that would somehow bring her closer to the sugary goodness. Behind her though… was a shorter girl, her dark hair pulled back into pigtails. Upon inspection, Claire noted that the girl was wearing an apron… _She must work in the deli section_, Claire decided but the thought quickly drifted from her mind when she took note of just how close she was standing to Elle… _her_ Elle. Claire felt her lips tighten ever so slightly and her brow furrowed. The electric blonde seemed to be indulging the stranger in conversation, but it was clear to Claire that the donuts were her first priority. This other girl however… Claire studied her stance; her hips jutting out ever so slightly while her hands rested in her back pockets… and the smile she wore? Claire watched on as the girl took another tiny step forward to whisper something in Elle's ear. _Oh yeah… she's definitely flirting._

Claire threw the bananas into her cart and quickly started to storm back over to the donut section.

As she watched on, the girl laughed at something Elle said again while reaching out to touch her arm lightly. _Who the _hell _does she think she is?_ Claire fumed as she came to an abrupt halt beside the girl. She jumped, startled, as her eyes came to rest on a very livid Claire… and Elle, of course, was still in her own world.

Claire shot daggers at the girl with her eyes, causing the short brunette to blush furiously and duck her head down in shame… but not before dropping her eyes and taking in Claire's form as well. _Really?_ She thought, disgusted. The girl seemed to mutter some apology before quickly shuffling off, leaving an oblivious Elle to drool over the donuts. Claire sighed and relaxed a bit as she turned her gaze to the unsuspecting woman's back. Without really thinking about it, she took a step forward and slipped her arms around the girl's waist while resting her head on her shoulder. Elle tensed at the contact, but relaxed when she noted it was Claire attached to her. The taller girl sighed quietly and leaned back into Claire's embrace; Claire smiled softly.

After standing there for a few moments she raised her head to speak into the girl's ear. "Would you like to get some donuts for the road?" she asked quietly, hoping that the low volume of her voice would somehow lessen the level of excitement she knew she was about to witness.

It didn't.

Elle practically jumped out of Claire's arms to turn around to face the shorter girl, beaming with excitement. "_Really?_" she asked, bouncing on her toes.

Claire laughed at her reaction and nodded, "Yes yes, now hurry up."

Elle squealed and hurriedly grabbed a plastic bag before chunking more than a few donuts into it. Claire rolled her eyes and proceeded to lead the girl away to check out. She was ready to get out of there… Not that she was eager to leave Elle's company, no no, but because she was planning a little… _detour_ on their way back into town.

Once they were in the car, Elle had immediately stuffed an entire donut into her mouth… of course, choosing _that _time to ask if Claire wanted one. She had to repeat herself a few times as Claire couldn't hear the muffled question through the donut and her own laughter. _Oh Elle_…

They drove for several minutes in silence while Elle munched happily on her treat. Claire smiled softly to herself as her destination came into view. Starting to chew on her lip anxiously, she quickly pulled into the abandoned gas station parking lot.

"Hmm," Elle glanced around the setting. "This isn't our gas station," she concluded, a question in her tone.

"I know," Claire responded, smirking softly to herself as she pulled behind the gas station and parked the van out of the view of the street.

Elle scrunched her eyebrows together and looked over to Claire with mock terror in her eyes. "Are you going to kill me now?" she asked.

Claire snorted. "Shut up," she said and quickly climbed over the van's console to pull herself onto Elle's lap. Elle immediately accommodated the position by releasing the back of the seat, letting it fall backwards while she laid back, pulling Claire on top of her.

Claire didn't need any further invitation.

"Mmm," she moaned softly as her mouth finally came into contact with Elle's. She had wanted to kiss the girl all day; her lips just as soft and inviting as the cheerleader thought they would be. Claire combed her fingers through the taller blonde's hair and pushed in closer, tasting the sugar on the other girl's lips. She normally tasted just wonderful by herself, but now Claire could detect the small traces of sugar still left on her. _Mmm_, she thought, _Sugar coated Elle…_

Claire tentatively slipped her tongue out to run it across Elle's bottom lip which elicited a tiny moan from the older girl. Claire grinned smugly before deepening the kiss, quickly tangling their tongues together. "Mmm, Elle," she moaned the other girl's name softly as Elle's hands found their way to her hips and squeezed softly, causing an unexpected shudder through the shorter blonde's tiny frame. _Mm yeah, just keep doing that_, Claire's mind screamed as she gripped onto the electric blonde hair, tugging on it softly. The move brought on another moan from the taller girl's mouth and she responded by slipping her hands under Claire's shirt, scratching her back softly. Claire momentarily broke away from Elle's lips to catch her breath, "Ugh, God Elle." She tugged on the girl's hair again, tilting her head back while Claire promptly attacked Elle's neck with her mouth.

"Mmph, Claire," Elle's voice was soft and cracked slightly on Claire's name. It stirred something inside the cheerleader which made her press in even closer against the taller girl's body, claiming the girl as her own. Claire bit the side of her neck softly, causing a small whimper to fall from Elle's lips before quickly kissing the spot to make it better. Elle swallowed hard and slowly started to slide her hands up Claire's back, taking in the smooth expanse of skin under her fingers while her hands crawled higher and higher, pulling Claire's shirt with them. Claire shivered at the cool air now on her exposed back and stomach and reached down to help Elle pull her shirt off-

_**Because your love, your love, your love-is my druuug. Your love, your love, your looove.**_

Elle groaned and flopped her head back against the seat while Claire muttered a curse and reached back over the console to grab her phone. "You really need to turn that off," Elle grumbled bitterly.

Claire sighed and nodded at Elle's frustrated expression, "I know I know." She quickly answered the phone and held it up to her ear, "Hello?"

"Claire? Thank goodness," Zach's panicked voice came through the phone.

"Zach?" Claire asked, picking up the note of urgency in his voice, "What's going on?" She looked down at Elle to see an agitated look on her face. Claire quickly leaned down to peck her on the lips before sitting up again and pulling her shirt back down. Elle grumbled.

"Claire, I… Please don't hate me, but I lost it," Zach spilled out.

_Lost? Lost what?_ Claire wondered. She was about to ask when a hand slipped back under her shirt to pet her stomach. Claire gave Elle a look and placed her own hand on Elle's forearm in an attempt to cease the movement. It didn't work.

"What did you lose, Zach?" Claire asked, her eyes slightly fluttering closed as Elle's hand moved to trace the waistline of her pants. _Mmm... wait, is someone trying to talk to me?_

"Claire, are you there?" Zach's voice cut back into her thoughts.

"Huh?" Claire said, focusing on her phone again. Elle snickered. "I'm sorry, Zach, what did you lose?"

"The _tape_, Claire," Zach said exasperated, "Have you not been listening? The tape! You know, the one where you're trying to kill yourself like twenty times?"

Claire heart constricted painfully and her stomach dropped. "_WHAT?_" she shouted into the phone, making Elle jump and stop her teasing.

"I'm sorry, Claire, I'm so sorry," Zach continued, "I don't know what happened! I mean, I never took it out of my video camera, but my camera is sitting on the desk and the tape is nowhere to be found!" He groaned, "I've searched everywhere, Claire."

Claire took a few deep, calming breaths while she rubbed her forehead, "Okay… okay, well, just keep looking for it." She let out a shaky breath, "You have to find that tape, Zach."

Zach sighed, "I know… I know. Maybe I left it in my locker or something, I don't know." He paused before continuing, "I'll look for it."

Claire nodded even though he wouldn't be able to see it. "Alright," she started, "Keep me updated." She hung up without waiting for a response and deflated; her shoulders and head slumping forward while she let her arms fall useless on Elle's stomach.

"Claire?" Elle asked after a moment.

Claire bit her lip and looked up to see Elle's concerned expression. The older girl reached out and slowly rubbed her arms. Claire sighed in defeat and swallowed gently before starting. "Zach lost the tape," she said softly.

Elle's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. "What tape, Claire?" she asked, worry slipping into her voice.

Claire sighed again and leaned forward to drop her head against Elle's shoulder. "The tape…" she started again, "When I was first discovering my ability, my friend Zach and I made a tape… of me trying to kill myself."

Elle gasped and shot up, pushing Claire back against the dash. "You did _what?_" she shouted.

Claire bit her lip hard, feeling tears starting to well up in her eyes. "It was just an experiment… I knew I wouldn't get hurt."

Elle let out a disbelieving scoff. "If it was an experiment, _Claire_, you couldn't have been absolutely sure that you would survive, now could you?" she started, her eyes filling with disappointment, "What were you thinking?"

Claire bowed her head then, sniffling softly. Elle, hearing this, sighed softly and shook her head, trying to get a reign on her emotions. After a moment she wrapped her arms around the trembling girl and hugged her close. Claire welcomed the hug and squeezed herself as close to the older girl as she could, feeling safer in her arms. Elle buried her face in the honey blonde hair while she thought quietly for a moment. "And now this Zach guy has lost the tape?" she asked quietly. Claire nodded gently against her shoulder. Elle sighed again, but started to rub the cheerleaders back, hoping to soothe her.

"I'm sure everything will be fine, Claire," she started, "We better get you home though before your dad decides to track us down."

Claire nodded absently, still biting down on her lip as she extracted herself from Elle's hold. Climbing back over into her seat, she started the van and headed back into town. They rode in silence. Claire could feel the older girl watching her, but she didn't take her eyes off the road. After a moment Elle finally relaxed back into her seat, staring off into the distance with glazed eyes.

She reached over and took Claire's hand and held it tight. "Everything's gonna be okay," she heard the older girl say softly. Claire gulped and nodded. _Right_, she told herself... but she couldn't help wondering what would happen if that tape were to fall into the wrong hands...

* * *

**A/N: Mwaha. What did y'all think?**


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